The Indian government has a fight on its hands if it hopes to prevent the last article written by Mahatma Gandhi from going under the hammer at Christie’s on July 3, even by pleading that the manuscript can be dubbed ‘stolen’.
The government is trying to come to a deal with the vendors to buy it
LONDON: The Indian government has a fight on its hands if it hopes to prevent the last article written by Mahatma Gandhi from going under the hammer at Christie’s on July 3, even by pleading that the manuscript can be dubbed ‘stolen’.
The letter is being offered at the auction for an estimated price of £12,000. The price is also expected to rise well above the £12,000 mark thanks to the interest created in the manuscript.
The Indian government is attempting to stop the article from being auctioned and is trying to come to an arrangement with the vendors — the family of the late Albin Schram — to buy it and bring it back to India. Even in the case of a private sale Christie’s is the agent for the vendors.
“The manuscript has already gone through two public auctions before that we are aware of. One at an auction house in 1984 and the last at Christie’s in 2002 when Albin Schram bought it,” Matthew Paton of Christie’s told DNA. The question being raised is why did the Indian government not wake up to the ‘stolen’ nature of the manuscript earlier.
The auction of The Albin Schram Collection of Autograph Letters, a private collection assembled over a period of 30 years, has created a lot of interest and as of now it looks as if the Indian government will have no option but to bid for it.
Schram, an Austrian began collecting rare letters in 1973 and its existence was unknown even to his family. Apart from the article by Gandhi, it includes 570 lots of handwritten manuscripts by the most notable figures of European history from the 13th to the 20th centuries. It includes Lord Byron, Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth I, Sigmeund Freud, Napoleon, Sir Isaac Newton, Oliver Cromwell, Claude Monet, Oscar Wilde and Charlotte Bronte.
“It is one of the most exciting collections of letters we have seen in a long time, and it is in Schram’s will that the collection must be auctioned publicly,” said Paton.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}