Round glasses, wearing the symbol of the struggle for Indian independence, Mahatma Gandhi, were sold during an auction in Britain for 260,000 pounds ($340,000), according to the East Bristol Auction House.
“Watch the moment when Gandhi’s glasses were sold for 260,000 pounds. We found them no more than four weeks ago in our mailbox, and it was placed by a man whose uncle had placed it,” the house wrote on its Instagram account in a post. He got it from Gandhi personally. It’s a great result of a great piece. ”
The estimated price for these gold-coated circular sunglasses ranged from £10,000 to 15,000 ($13,000 and $20,000).
It was placed in an envelope deposited in the mailbox of the East Bristol Auction House.
“A colleague of mine grabbed the envelope and tore it apart and found a message with the words ‘These glasses were for Gandhi, call me…..,'” Andrew Stowe, an auction commissioner, told Sky News.
Stowe pointed out that after contacting the seller, “we conducted inspections and searches, which concluded that we are facing a historical discovery … I called the man back and told him if it was worthless, get rid of it”, pointing out that the seller almost “fell to the ground ” upon informing him of the estimated value of the piece.
The auction house explained on its website that the advocate of nonviolent struggle “often gave his old glasses or those he wanted to dispose of to people in need or to those who helped him.”
These auctioned glasses were given by Gandhi in the 1920s to the seller’s uncle, who was working for the British Petroleum Company in South Africa at the time, according to East Bristol Auctions, which expressed its belief that Gandhi had offered it as a token of thanks for a good gesture.”
