The luxury edition of Barack Obama’s memoirs, with the author’s handwritten signature, was auctioned on February 2nd, 2021, for 7,500 euros, in just 10 minutes, in an art auction organised at A10 by Artmark.

The amount collected will be entirely redirected to the “Read Me 100 Stories!” program run by Asociatia OvidiuRo, which aims to transform the approximately 4,500 public kindergartens in Romania into Kinder Libraries by 2025, thus stimulating reading with children in kindergartens and family. Thanks to this donation, 400 children and 20 preschool teachers from four kindergartens will benefit from 1,000 new books and will participate in weekly reading sessions.

“We thank those who bid and who believe, like us, in the importance of early education. We need as many resources as possible to reach as many children as possible, especially those from disadvantaged communities. We need to grow together the future generations of readers because this is a sure path for the development of the entire Romanian society. The “Read Me 100 Stories!” program is very ambitious, yet achievable with the society’s involvement”, declared Maria Gheorghiu, president of Asociatia OvidiuRo.

The highest bidder of the collector’s book, “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama was Romanian-American-Israeli entrepreneur Mike Costache. Dozens of “ambassadors” of good deeds made offers for the book, which started being auctioned at 100 euros. As a sign of gratitude for his contribution to supporting the early education charity program, Mike will be offered a signed copy of the recently-released book by Ethan Hawke, “A Bright Ray of Darkness.”

,,It is a special book, both for the noble cause and for its emotional value. It will be a gift for my mother’s birthday who has been living in New Jersey, USA since 1992. Until her birthday in December, my plan is to organize monthly fundraising events to motivate as many people as possible to also sponsor at least one kindergarten out of the approximately 4,500 public kindergartens in Romania. The events will focus on last night’s book, “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama. I am happy that my small donation will help fund three libraries in urban areas and one library in a rural area. They will be dedicated in the names of the four most important women in my life: Anastasia (5 year-old daughter), Valentina (my wife of 15 years), Ligia (my mother) and Elena (my late grandmother),” said Mike Costache.

This charitable auction was made possible by Cărturești Bookstore, which donated the luxury edition of “A Promised Land” with the handwritten signature of Barack Obama.

“We are happy with the result of the auction, especially because of what it means: that more children will soon have access to books that can change their lives. We are also happy that there are generous readers who are thinking about the future of education in Romania. For Cărturești it was a privilege to be able to start this circuit of doing good for such a noble cause. Last night I received another proof of the power of books to do good in the world “, says Nicoleta Iordan, Co-founder of Cărturești.

The Graphic Art auction of an Important Bucharest Collector was held online using the Artmark Live Platform and all 139 items were auctioned, thus achieving a 100% selling rate.