A signed letter from the boxing legend Muhammad Ali to Nelson Mandela was sold for 7,200 pounds (8,999 U.S. dollars) at an auction in a British town of Devizes, the BBC reported Saturday.

"It will appeal to collectors of Ali memorabilia as well as those who collect Nelson Mandela material," the auctioneer Andrew Aldrige told BBC.

The letter, typed by the personal assistant to the general manager of a hotel in the South African city of Durban where Ali was staying in 1993, was sold to a U.S. collector.

In the letter, Ali offered his condolences on the death of Chris Hani, an anti-apartheid leader who was assassinated on 10 April, 1993.

Ali stayed in South Africa for a short period in April 1993 and he attended Hani's farewell at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on April 19, 1993.

Mandela kept a photograph of himself with Ali on his desk, and his favorite book, in his late years, was an autographed copy of Ali's biography, according to Andrew Aldrige.

source: Xinhua