BOSTON, MA – (September, 8 14) * Video also Available on request*<br />
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Nelson Mandela's 'Freedom Torch'—used in historic ceremony up for auction<br />
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RR Auction is proud to announce that Nelson Mandela's 'Freedom Torch,' used during a historic ceremony to symbolize the end of Apartheid, will be featured in an upcoming live auction event that is scheduled to take place in Boston in September.<br />
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On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison after spending nearly three decades in detention under the South African apartheid regime—a pivotal moment in the history of the nation and the world. This marked the beginning of the end for a racist oppression embedded in culture and codified in law, with Mandela embodying the spirit of the peace, democracy, and freedom that would take its place. In 1994, South Africa held its first fully representative democratic national election—now open to all races—which would see Mandela elected as the country's first black president.<br />
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While on the campaign trail on February 3, 1994, Mandela returned to Victor Verster Prison to reenact his liberation, lighting a 'flame of freedom'—using the torch— that has only recently surfaced, to honor those who suffered to end apartheid. Mandela gathered with others who had been held as political prisoners and he was presented this torch at the prison gate, then lighted the symbolic flame, freed some doves, and placed a wreath on the razor wire hedge erected at the prison entrance. He then rode past adoring crowds to a rally at the soccer stadium in Paarl.<br />
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“It was such an apocalyptic moment seeing Mandela holding up that flame of freedom. I knew then, on top of all deep reflections in a lonely prison cell had revealed to me, that in my personal capacity I had a solemn responsibility to go on carrying that flame of freedom for as long as I lived— others too would have felt the same,” says Mosiuoa Lekota, a South African politician who currently serves as the Presi