| An auction of Mahatma Gandhi’s trademark wire frame eyeglasses and other personal possessions by a New York auction house has sparked widespread condemnation in India.
The glasses, as well as a pair of leather sandals, a pocket watch and a brass bowl and plate are being auctioned by Antiquorum Auctioneers in early March in New York. The items are collectively priced around $30,000, although with the global publicity the auction has now received, the bids will no doubt be significantly higher bids.
The auction has triggered a national campaign to have the items returned to India. His great-grandson Tushar Gandhi is seeking to raise money to buy the items and there have been calls in parliament for the government to buy the items for Gandhi’s museum in Delhi.
The items are owned by an unidentified German collector who acquired most of them from members of Gandhi’s family. Gandhi had gifted his eyeglasses to an Indian army colonel and his sandals to a British military office.
In a sign of just how tone deaf the Antiquorum auction house peddling the wares of the world’s most recognized ascetic to the highest bidder is, its spokeswoman Michelle Halpern gloated: “This is a truly historic sale of Gandhi”s possessions. Of course he didn’t have much, so anything of his that comes up for sale is worth that much.”
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