The likely only surviving handwritten final full draft of Martin Luther King Jr’s historic 1963 I Have a Dream speech is set to be auctioned in New York City in January, with proceeds benefiting several charities, including the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Auction house Christie’s has announced that the document is expected to fetch more than $10m, and that the pages will be displayed publicly at the auction house from 15 to 21 January, before being offered in a single-lot sale.

Described as “the only known handwritten final draft of the speech”, the auction house said that the document was rediscovered in 2024 in a desk drawer belonging to a former aide of King’s, Edward T Clayton, by his widow, Xernona.

She had originally found it in the late 1990s but did not know then that it was the only known final draft, and put it back in the drawer, until 2024, when she rediscovered the document and experts established that it is unique, Christie’s added.

According to the auction house, King completed the…