India has paid $1.1 million to buy a collection of letters, papers and photographs relating to Mahatma Gandhi, preventing their sale at a planned auction in London.
The archive, which belonged to Gandhi’s close friend Hermann Kallenbach, a German Jewish bodybuilder and architect, was to have gone under the hammer at Sotheby’s on Tuesday.
Sanjiv Mittal, a joint secretary at India’s Ministry of Culture, said the government had paid £700,000 for the entire collection, which will be brought to India and housed in the National Archive. “It was felt that the letters are of importance to study the thoughts of Gandhi on various matters,” Mittal told AFP. “Since we already have some letters exchanged between Kallenbach and Gandhi, we thought this would help us fill up the gaps in our collection.”
Sotheby’s had put a pre-sale estimate of between £500,000 and £700,000 on the collection.
Indian historian Ramachandra Guha discovered the letters at the home of Kallenbach’s grand-niece, Isa Sarid.
Indian media reported that the government purchase followed weeks of intense negotiations with Kallenbach’s surviving relatives. India has in the past complained bitterly about private auctions of Gandhi’s belongings, saying they insulted the memory of a man who rejected material wealth. Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi welcomed the government’s move to bring the collection to India.
