An R—Fe—B base sintered magnet is prepared through the steps of providing an alloy fine powder having a predetermined composition, compression shaping the alloy fine powder in an applied magnetic field into a compact, sintering the compact at a temperature of 900-1,250° C. into a sintered body, cooling the sintered body to 400° C. or below, high-temperature heat treatment including placing a metal, compound or intermetallic compound containing HR which is Dy, Tb and/or Ho, on the surface of the sintered body, heating at a temperature from more than 950° C. to 1,100° C., for causing grain boundary diffusion of HR into the sintered body, and cooling to 400° C. or below, and low-temperature heat treatment including heating at a temperature of 400-600° C. and cooling to 300° C. or below. The sintered magnet produces a high coercivity despite a low content of Dy, Tb and Ho.