Indian liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya bought a set of Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings, including his trademark round-rimmed spectacles, for $1.8 million at an auction in New York on Thursday amid high drama. It was not immediately clear if the articles would be returned to the government or kept in private possession.
Tony Bedi, a representative for Mallya, a liquor and airline tycoon and a former MP, placed the winning bid at New York's Antiquorum Auctioneers auction house despite protests in India and an injunction from Delhi High Court seeking to halt the sale.
However, the US justice department has asked the auction house to hold the lot, which also includes, a 1910 silver Zenith pocket watch, sandals, a bowl, a 'thali' (plate) and letters of authenticity, for two weeks pending a resolution between the new owner and the US and Indian governments.
Bedi later announced that the belongings would be returned to India for public display, but it was not clear whether they would be turned over to the government, as some officials have demanded.
The bidders included a dozen people in the room, 30 people on the phone, and about two dozen people who submitted written bids. The second highest bid was a $1.75 million bid submitted online from Britain, said the auction house.
As soon as Lot No. 364, the Gandhi items, came up for sale shortly after 3 p.m., a hush settled across the room and a slide show of Gandhi was displayed, with a recording of piano music, the New York Times reported.
While the bidding increments were originally set to $10,000, within a matter of seconds the price, fueled by Internet and phone offers, escalated up to $200,000 and then started jumping by $50,000 and $100,000 increments. Within two minutes the bidding hit $1 million.
At that point, the contest became a bidding war between Bedi, representing Mallya, and Arlan Ettinger, the president of Guernsey's Auction House, representing a former Indian cricketer, Dilip Doshi, who now works for a company that distributes Mont Blanc pens and other luxury items.
After a phone bidder declined to push Bedi's bid at $1.8 million, Bedi was declared the winner. The room burst into applause. The Times cited Ettinger as saying afterwards that Doshi was trying to buy the items on behalf of the Indian government.
However, a spokesperson of the Indian consulate in New York said the Indian government itself did not participate in the auction as that would have been a violation of the Delhi High Court order.
The spokesperson also denied media reports that it was in discussions on Thursday with Los Angeles collector James Otis about his offer to withdraw the items from the auction provided New Delhi agrees to either increase government spending on the poor or to create an international travelling exhibit about Gandhi.
Otis sent the three-page proposal after a meeting on Wednesday with the Indian consul general in New York, Prabhu Dayal.
Mallya happy to bring Gandhi's heritage back to India
Indian liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya is very pleased with his purchase of a set of Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings including his iconic round-rimmed spectacles as he is bringing the national heritage home.
Tony Bedi, the representative of Mallya who bought the items for $1.8 million at an auction in New York, said his client is "really pleased with the purchase" as "he is bringing the heritage of the items back to India".
The circumstances of the auction were unusual, Bedi was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Los Angeles collector, James Otis "had a double mind at the last moment," Bedi said, adding that he did not think Otis's change of heart would prevent the sale from being finalised.
Inside the auction room was a mix between elite Indian-born businessmen and diehard watch collectors. One of the potential bidder was Sant Singh Chatwal, an Indian-American businessman who is close to former president Bill Clinton.
"I made up my mind to go up to maybe half a million," Chatwal, told the Times in a phone interview before the auction. "We'll see how it goes."
"Anything when it comes to Gandhi is emotional, sentimental and patriotic when it comes to Indians," said Shyan Gulati, chief executive of the Infopeople Corp, an information technology company based on Wall Street.
Describing the scene at the auction house as a Who's Who of New York's Indian elite, Gulati said: "In the last ten years, Indian professionals are doing extremely well all over the world and they'd like to contribute."
India to do 'whatever it takes' to get Gandhi items
Earlier, India said, it will do "whatever it takes" to prevent Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings from being sold at auction in New York.
The latest comments from New Delhi came after New York-based Antiquorum Auctioneers said the controversial sale would go ahead later on Thursday as planned despite fierce Indian opposition.
"I have the prime minister's instructions that we would not like to have these items be auctioned from one party to another," Indian Culture Minister Ambika Soni told.
The memorabilia to be sold include Gandhi's iconic round glasses, sandals, pocket watch and a bowl and plate.
Soni said the glasses and other items "were tokens given to individuals in recognition of their Gandhian values." Their sale meant commercialisation of his belongings and a repudiation of what he stood for.
"We will offer whatever it takes to make sure these things come back to Gandhi's motherland."
Antiquorum insisted on Wednesday the sale would take place and put an estimate of $ 20,000 to 30,000 on the items, which will sell as a single lot.
The final price is expected to be considerably higher, partly thanks to the publicity generated by the row in India over the sale.
This week, New Delhi instructed its diplomats in the US to try to obtain Gandhi's personal effects before the auction that the freedom fighter's great-grandson, Tushar Gandhi, has described as a "grave insult."
Mahatma Gandhi, who eschewed material possessions, led India's freedom movement against British rule and was assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic in 1948, a year after independence.
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