An Indian beer and airlines magnate placed the winning $1.8 million bid Thursday in New York for Mahatma Gandhi's spectacles and other personal items.
Tony Bedi, representing Vijay Mallya, who owns the company that makes Kingfisher Beer, did the bidding and said that the items will be returned to India for public display, The New York Times reported. He said that Mallya has not yet decided whether to give them to the government.
The Indian government tried to stop the auction at Antiquorum Gallery in New York. On Thursday, officials said that the government would not put in a bid but would ask Indian-Americans to secure the items.
Gandhi gave the eyeglasses and its leather case to an army colonel who had asked him for inspiration, telling him they were the "eyes" that had given him the vision to free India.
http://politicom.moldova.org/news/in...87458-eng.html
http://www.thespec.com/printArticle/512922
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