A letter from Paul Gauguin was the most expensive lot at an auction of autographs held by Berlin-based dealer J.A. Stargardt yesterday, reports Bloomberg.

The letter, written in 1889 to "a monsieur," describes the horrors of time spent in Provence with Vincent van Gogh. It sold for 90,000 euros ($140,000) against a top estimate of 20,000 euros.

Other highlights of the sale were letters from Goethe, Mozart, Princess Diana, the East German communist leader Erich Honecker, and one written by Karl Marx to Countess Sophie von Hatzfeldt in 1864 after the countess's former lover, German labor movement founder Ferdinand Lassalle, died from injuries suffered in a duel over a woman, which went for 52,000 euros.

The auction, held in Berlin's Opernpalais, brought in 1.7 million euros total, beating its 1.3 million euro estimate.