The auction for Mandela shirts in New York has been stopped by the South African Heritage Resources Agency.
The Agency blocked the sale, claiming the shirts did not have the necessary permits to leave the country.
The decision to halt the auctioning of the shirt came days after the Agency announced that he planned auction of the key to the prison cell that once held South Africa’s first Black president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela has been suspended.
The key to the Robben Island prison cell, where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in jail, had been slated by United States auction house Guernsey’s to go under the hammer on January 28.
Guernsey’s announced on its website the auction was postponed until further notice “pending a review” by South African Heritage Resources Agency.
The government agency called for the auction to be stopped “not because they believed anything was stolen but that things left South Africa without necessary permits”, Guernsey’s President Arlan Ettinger said.
