Memorabilia related to celebrated Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky sold for over $2 million, 15 times the pre-sale estimate, after a dramatic 18-minute bidding battle at Sotheby's auction in London, Business Standard reported.

The archive of the legendary Soviet filmmaker is to return to Russia, after the director’s home region outbid competitors on Wednesday November 28 evening, The Moscow News said.

The three bidders who stayed in the race until the end were Danish film master Lars von Trier, a representative of the Ivanovo region – where Tarkovsky was born – and an anonymous collector, RIA Novosti reported, citing the region’s governor, Mikhail Men.

The funds were collected from various non-budgetary sources, according to Men.

He said earlier that the archive should be preserved in a museum in the town of Yuryevets, near where the director of “Stalker” was born.

“Together with the Culture Ministry, we’ve done everything possible to draw the attention of the public to this event and bring the great director’s archive back to his motherland,” RIA Novosti quoted Men as saying.