Editor's Letter: Lucinda Bredin

"In 1990, an extraordinary manuscript came to light. It wasn't lost exactly. In fact, the family that owned it knew the document was in the attic. However, it was written in Japanese, which the surviving family members couldn't read.

It was only when it was placed in the hands of experts that the true importance of the document was revealed. It was the confession – or perhaps thoughts is a more accurate description – of Emperor Hirohito, transcribed by his translator, Terasaki Hidenari, a senior diplomat who had married an American from Tennessee, Gwen Harold, during a posting in the US. Now referred to as the Dokuhakuroku, the manuscript – described by Barak Kushner on page 34 as "a bombshell" – has been the subject of much analysis, but this is the first time it has come to auction. On 6 December, it will be offered in the Voices of the 20th Century Sale in New York.

The manuscript – written in Japan, but found in the US – is an indication of how art and artefacts move around the globe. Bonhams has salerooms in all four corners of the earth and our specialists constantly evaluate in which region it would be best to offer each work. For instance, two paintings by Fahrelnissa Zeid, whose work is currently at Tate Modern, were in the collection of Princess Alia Al-Hussein and will be offered in London's Modern Middle Eastern Art Sale in November. Mind you, Fahrelnissa had a very cosmopolitan existence – and, as Rachel Spence writes, "an extraordinarily tumultuous existence". Born in Turkey on an island in the Sea of Marmara, Fahrelnissa arrived in Paris in the 1920s, married the Emir of Mecca's son (her second husband) and had a ringside seat at most of the upheavals of the 20th century (she even had tea with Hitler). The re-evaluation of her work has not come too soon.

In our 'Inside Bonhams' feature, India Phillips talks about walking into an apartment in Barcelona and seeing a sensational portrait by Salvador Dalí. As she said, "these are the moments that we specialists live for". The Old Master Department had a similar frisson when a small golden panel was pronounced a work by the 14th-century Venetian master, Lorenzo Veneziano. On page 30, Andrew McKenzie, the department's director, writes about how the work is the crucial link between the hieratic Byzantine style and the flesh-and-blood figures associated with Giotto. It's a golden wonder.

Enjoy the issue."

Lucinda Bredin