Lost Doyle papers valued at $3.6M

LONDON, March 16 (UPI) -- A lost collection of personal papers belonging to Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle has been found and valued at $3.6 million, the BBC reported.

The papers and other artifacts found in a London legal firm's offices include a sketch for the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes in the novel "A Study in Scarlet."

The papers went missing 40 years ago during a dispute over Conan Doyle's estate.

The collection of 3,000 items, including personal notes and hand-written manuscripts, will go on display at Christie's auction house in May for five days before being sold, the BBC said.

It addition to personal effects taken from Conan Doyle's writing desk after his death in 1930, the collection also includes letters from his brother and sister, and others from public figures like Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw, P.G. Wodehouse and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.