A pair of gold-plated spectacles believed to have been worn by Mahatma Gandhi and presented as a gift in the 1900s have broken all records for a UK auction house by selling for 260,000 pounds.
The glasses, which were dropped through the letterbox of East Bristol Auctions in Hanham, south-west England, four weeks ago were estimated to fetch between 10,000 pounds and 15,000 pounds but the online bids for the lot kept multiplying to finally go under the hammer of the six-figure sum.
“An incredible result for an incredible item! Thanks to all those who bid,” said auctioneer Andy Stowe of East Bristol Auctions, as he closed the bid for the online auction on Friday.
“These glasses have been lying in a drawer for the best part of 50 years. The vendor literally told me to throw them away if they were ‘no good’," he said.
"Now he gets a life-changing sum of money. It’s the ‘good news’ story that we all want – as an elderly gentleman, our vendor has probably had a rough time in recent months and to be able to change his life is just incredible. The price is outstanding, but it’s not about the money,” he added.
The auction house said that the lot had attracted interest from all over the world, including bids from India, Qatar, American, Russia, Canada.
(Source: indiatvnews)