Gandhi Memorabilia: US Collector Says “No” to India

When the news leaked out that Mahatma Gandhi’s personal belongings were going under the hammer on March 5, there was a public outcry in India and the Indian officials tried to persuade the Californian collector to sell these to them. But so far the collector has refused do so.

Why? Because the Indian government was giving him low payment for such a precious collector’s items, which include Mahatma Gandhi’s Zenith pocket watch, steel-rimmed spectacles, a pair of sandals and an eating bowl and plate, with a reserve price of between $20,000 and $30,000.

“A California collector who plans to sell possessions once owned by Mahatma Gandhi says he has rejected a ‘generous but small’ offer from India and barring a last minute agreement Thursday’s planned auction would go ahead,” reports India’s The Economic Times quoting IANS.

“James Otis, 45, from Los Angeles, has agreed to meet Indian officials at 10 am Wednesday in the company of Lester Kurtz, Professor at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia.

“Otis an avid collector of Gandhi memorabilia has for the past decade been working with Kurtz, a leading scholar on Gandhi on three projects, including a four-hour television documentary titled ‘Peaceful Warriors-A History of Non-violence’.” More here…

In an eariler news story the US-based collector had said that he would donate the Mahatma Gandhi memorabilia if the Indian government agreed to spend five per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on the poor. See here…