India Offers to Buy Gandhi Watch, Glasses to Halt N.Y. Auction

[Coventina]

Source: Bloomberg

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- India has offered to buy the personal effects of Mahatma Gandhi and a telegram on which the independence leader wrote “All good causes create good wishes” to pull them from a planned New York auction, the owner said.

James Otis, a Los Angeles-based documentary filmmaker, said he received an e-mailed offer from India’s New York consulate to buy the seven items that are scheduled for sale by auction house Antiquorum tomorrow. The offer is too low to consider, said Otis, 45, declining to give specifics. The consulate didn’t answer queries seeking comment.

“We never want Gandhi’s words, and his images and his ideas to go away,” Otis said in an interview. He said selling the items to India would give the public access to them.

Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, used nonviolent civil disobedience to lead India to independence; he was shot and killed in 1948 by a Hindu extremist while taking his nightly walk in the grounds of Birla House in New Delhi.



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[Captain Hilts]

1. I hope the buyer gives the items to India. Sad. I've been horrified by the stuff that comes up for

auction.

Like this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24829913/

An original land deed signed in 1696 in which five Native American chiefs, including Wappinger Chief Nimham, gave their land to early Dutch settlers. The land later became the president's estate at Hyde Park, N.Y. The document is valued at $40,000 to $60,000.

FDR's Tiffany wristwatch, worn at the Yalta Conference. Value estimated at $4,000 to $6,000.

FDR's 1934 Christmas gift to Eleanor Roosevelt, an 18K gold and diamond compact with engraved message, valued at $4,000 to $6,000.

FDR's check register with 47 signed checks. One entry notes a deposit of his monthly salary for $4,866.65. The last check he signed was in the amount of $1,800 for Eleanor's account. It is dated April 9, three days before he died.

[Kalyan]

2. to be frank ... i don't care ...

If Gandhiji was alive, he wouldn't have cared about his glasses, watch and clothes. Not that they don't hold value, but because those are not the value he want people to understand.

I am sad that Indian govt is going to use taxpayers money to buy these artifacts. Gandhiji would have loved nothing more than that money being used to get 10 kids to school; provide food for 100 poor people or any other worthy social cause.

The importance of Gandhiji was his ideas of using non-violence as a weapon (is there a bigger oxymoron in English language?) of furthering one's cause. To many people's dismay, it has been too tough a road for many to follow.

I strongly believe that Gandhiji's principles is what separates India today from Pakistan.

[nyy1998]

3. I agree that Gandhi would not have wanted this to happen.

And this one of the reasons he was such a great man. But this is a fundamental part of Indian history and I'd rather it be in some museum in Dehli where everyone could see it, then in the hands of some guy who may not know how to preserve and protect these valuable items. As for taxpayer dollars goes, I view this as an education opportunity for the Indian people to learn and appreciate their history. Why do you think the government helps maintain numerous artifacts in George Washington's home? Or Thomas Jefferson for that matter? I don't view either as a waste of taxpayer money, but rather one of the best uses of it.

[Kalyan]

4. hmm ... i didn't see it that way ...

not that i agree with you but i see where you are coming from. That does make sense. Thanks.

[1monster]

5. While I can understand why India would want these items and wish them good luck in acquiring them, I

don't see how they can claim that personal effects of and individual belong to the state of India.

Perhaps, the family could argue that the effects belong to them, but they would have to prove that the effects were obtained illegally by owners subsequent to Gandhi himself.