Gandhi sandal auction will go ahead
A New York auction of objects once owned by Mahatma Gandhi, including a pair of leather sandals, is likely to go ahead in spite of protests in India.
The sale of items by Antiquorum Auctioneers is scheduled for March 5 but commentators in India, including Gandhi’s family, have suggested that the sale is something of an insult to the memory of the man known there as the Father of the Nation for his leadership in the Indian independence movement in the first half of the twentieth century.
Michelle Halpern, a spokesperson for the auction house, told AFP that there had been no direct contact from anyone in India. She said that there was a possibility that collectors who buy the sandals and the other objects on sale would lend them to museums in India afterwards.
