Actu : Les objets de Gandhi vendus pour 1,8 millions de dollars

5 objets ayant appartenu à Gandhi dont une montre Réveil ZENITH ont été adjugés pour 1,8 millions de dollars ce soir à New-york.

Gandhi's items sold for USD 1.8 million

Citation :

Dharam Shourie
New York, Mar 5 (PTI) After a high drama, Mahatma Gandhi's five personal items, including the iconic round eye glasses, finally went under the hammer here and were bought for USD 1.8 million by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya.

The auction went off despite the owner of Gandhi's prized memorabilia, James Otis, saying he has decided not to sell the items in the light of controversy. PTI

http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/00BE290B1C65399265257570007328F3?OpenDocument

Citation :

Vijay Mallya buys Gandhi memorabilia for $1.8 mn (Third Lead)
Posted by hpandey in World News
0 Comments
New York, March 6 (IANS) 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 Thursday amid high drama.

A representative for Mallya, Tony Bedi 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 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. 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 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 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 Wednesday with the Indian consul general in New York, Prabhu Dayal.

http://www.newspostonline.com/world-news/vijay-mallya-buys-gandhi-memorabilia-for-18-mn-third-lead-2009030637471

tt de même vendre aux enchèles les rares objet d'un homme dont la devise était ( plus ou moins) "se libérer du désir de posséder pour vivre heureux".

c légèrement choquant.

je me demande bien ce qu'il feront de ses lunettes...

"Moins on possède, moins on désire."

- les lettres d'Ashram, Gandhi. -

http://www.antiquorum.com/eng/march_4_5_ny_auction.htm

La montre de Gandhi était une ZENITH, comme ZEN l'a précisé

Le premier objet est la montre "Kennedy Onnassis"