Indian liquor tycoon
Vijay Mallya bought a set of Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings including his iconic round-rimmed spectacles for $1.8 million at an auction in New York.
Tony Bedi, the representative of Mallya 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".
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.
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 Montblanc 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.
However, a spokesperson of the Indian consulate in New York said Indian government itself did not participate in the auction as that would have been a violation of the Delhi high court order.
Posted by Shantanu Sengupta | Views 430 | Share Blog
