In mid-September, Tartu bailiff Oksana Kutšmei announced that she would be placing Sangaste Castle in Valga County up for auction at the end of October. The starting price for the castle was €2.6 million. However, by the 2 p.m. deadline on November 7, no bids had been made for the property.

"The auction failed, or in other words, this time [the property] was not sold. The reason for the failure is that there were no bids, not even at the starting price," Tartu bailiff Oksana Kutšmei told ERR.

Kutšmei will now consult with the debt collector to determine whether or not to announce a re-auction and whether to keep the asking price the same consider reducing it.

Sangaste Castle previously belonged to Sangaste Municipality, which following the local government reforms of 2017, which slashed the number of rural and city municipalities in Estonia from over 200 to the current 79, was merged into Otepää Rural Municipality.

At that time, as a result of a complex scheme, the castle fell into private hands.

In August 2021, the Prosecutor's Office charged former Otepää mayor Kaido Tamberg (SDE) and deputy mayor Kajar Lepik with misuse of municipal property, including Sangaste Castle (Sangaste loss), a 19th century former manor house around 25 kilometers southwest of Otepää, Valga County.

In August this year, the second-tier Tartu Circuit Court sentenced Tamberg and Lepik to 30 day's imprisonment (technically referred to as "shock imprisonment" – "Šokivangistus" – ed.), while the pair are also required to pay €62,225.92 in damages to Otepää Rural Municipality, regional daily Lõuna-Eesti Postimees wrote (link in Estonian).

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