Gandhi Memorabilia Collection Sold at Auction

Over 50 items of Mahatma Gandhi memorabilia were recentlysold by Mullock’s, a British auction house in Ludlow, Shropshire. 

Among the most valuable items sold were Gandhi’s last willand testament and the size eight sandals he wore in the 1920s.  Other items sold include a shawl hand-wovenby Gandhi, a British Parliament paper declaring him a terrorist, his rice bowl,his bed linen, his prayer beads, and three carved wise monkeys.  A Gandhi blood sample failed to sell, becauseit did not meet the 10,000-pound reserve price.

In 1924, Gandhi gave many of these items to a close friendwhose family kept them until deciding to sell. In response to numerous Gandhi auctions over the past decade, the Indiangovernment continues to claim it should have the right of first refusal onthese national treasures.

See Leon Watson, Mahatma Gandhi’s Last Will and Testament and the Iconic Sandals He Worein the 1920s Sell at Auction, Daily Mail, May 21, 2013.