'Premier' auction kicks off this weekend, bids capped at Rs 2.5 lakh

A total of 2,772 gift items received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past six months will go under the hammer starting Saturday, Culture Minister Prahlad Patel said on Wednesday. The items will be auctioned online at www.pmmementos.gov.in.

The base price for all items put up for the auction, which will close on October 3, is Rs 200, while the ceiling is Rs 2.5 lakh. The proceeds from the auction will go towards the Namami Gange project.

Items on auction include idols of Lords Ganesha and Hanuman, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, Veer Shivaji and Vivekananda. Also up for grabs are 576 shawls, 964 angavastras and 88 pagris among other such items.

The gifts are currently on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.

The Namami Gange project was launched by the Centre on May 13, 2015 to rejuvenate the Ganga and all its tributaries under one umbrella by consolidating all ongoing efforts.

In January this year, close to 1,900 gifts received by PM Modi in the preceding six months had been auctioned too, and the funds raised were also used for Namami Gange.

The Prime Minister's Office did not reveal the amount of funds generated through the January auction organised at the NGMA here. But some of the items rakes in big sums. A handcrafted wooden bike was auctioned for Rs 5 lakh. A traditional xorai (traditional decorative piece) given to Modi during a visit to Assam, went for Rs 12 lakh while a Buddha statuette, with a base price of Rs 4,000, raked in Rs 7 lakh.

—Zee Media Newsroom