Peter Ruhe, the German trading in Gandhian memorabilia, had written to the Sabarmati Ashram trust in March 2007, offering to sell it rare pictures and film footage of Mahatma Gandhi for 8 lakh euros (Rs5.5 crore). Incidentally, Ruhe had made his offer almost soon after the central government announced a grant of Rs10 crore for the Ashram, as budgetary allocation for the 2007-08 fiscal.
The Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust also runs the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. Ruhe had offered to sell the trust some rare photographs of Gandhi that were taken by Kanu Gandhi and Jagan Mehta (both deceased), who were famous photojournalists of Ahmedabad.
Ruhe had written his letter, with its price quote of 8 lakh euros, on the letterhead of GandhiServe Foundation, a Berlin-based Gandhi institute. (A copy of the letter is with DNA.) Ruhe is the founder-chairperson of GandhiServe Foundation. The German now claims to be no dealer but only an ‘agent’ of those who hold the copyright of the photographs and the film footage.
But in his letter of March 2007, he writes: “I offer you my personal collection of original photographs, films and negatives of Mahatma Gandhi. The material originates from various photographers and collections I was able to work with in the past 24 years of my engagement for the identification, preservation and accessibility of — mainly visual - material on Mahatma Gandhi.”
Stating that his material had been digitized during the last few years, he says, “I now wish to sell it to a buyer who truly appreciates these precious documents of Mahatma Gandhi, who will remain a guiding light for generations to come.”
In his letter, Ruhe gives details of the photos and film footage in his possession - in many cases even the original negatives - along with the price he wants for each of his "precious documents". He also gives the names of the photographers who had taken the photos and the unusual circumstances in which they were taken.
His letter also offers for sale the original negatives of a bunch of largely unpublished photographs taken by Jagan Mehta during Mahatma Gandhi's peace march in Bihar in March 1947. It also offers the negatives of photographs taken by Kanu Gandhi which he (Kanu) had rejected and were, therefore, never published before. Apart from these, he had also offered some film footage showing Mahatma Gandhi.
Kartikey Sarabhai, trustee of Sabarmati Ashram trust, said that the trust had flatly refused to buy anything from Ruhe. "India is still learning how to preserve its huge precious heritage," he said. "This incident should be an eye-opener for us and teach us to be careful about our heritageand its preservation."
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