Gandhi's Pocket Watch Goes For Over 2 Million Dollars In Controversial Auction

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Mar 5th 2009 at 4:30PM

While bidding may still taking place at Antiquroum's March 4-5 auction, the major lot has closed, the Zenith pocket watch and some accompanying items owned by Gandhi. For weeks now the Indian government was trying to halt the auction by legal means. Fearful that the relics would pass to hand away from India, they claimed that the items belonged to the people of India as a whole. While Indian officials were unable to stop the New York City based auction, thankfully for them the Gandhi watch has remained in Indian hands.

'Lot 364' closed way above the estimate price ($20-30k) at 1.8 million dollars. That price increased to $2,096,000 including the buyer's premium (an amount over the final bidding price charged to the buyer). It was by far the highest price a lot for this current auction had reached. The winning bid came from Vijay Mallya, the wealthy owner of King Fisher Beer (and Airlines) of India (is that like having a Budweiser airlines in the US?). His complete plans with the items and pocket watch are unclear. While the Gandhi relics will go on public display, it is unclear whether they will be given to the Indian government or remain in private hands.

Some content via MSN News and Anitquroum.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: antiquorum, auction, gandhi, pocket, vijay mallya, VijayMallya, watch, zenith

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches, Auctions

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Chevalier Feb 25th 2010 1:03PM

"The winning bid came from Vijay Mallya, the wealthy owner of King Fisher Beer (and Airlines) of India (is that like having a Budweiser airlines in the US?). "

No, that's like having a Virgin Music company and a Virgin Airlines and a Virgin Credit Card in the UK.
Mallya's pretty much the same kind of flamboyant character as Branson is...