Christies not to auction Gandhis letter

London based auction house Christies today withdrew proposed the July 3-auction of Mahatma Gandhis seven-page letter.

London, July 2 : London based auction house Christie's today withdrew proposed the July 3-auction of Mahatma Gandhi's seven-page letter.

The said letter was written by Gandhi 19 days before his assassination, where he had pleaded for tolerance, particularly towards Muslims in newly partitioned India.

According to reports, the letters would now be handed over to the Indian Government.

Gandhi's manuscript, written for his journal Harijan was among the letters of famous personalities that were to go under the hammer on Tuesday.

According to a Christie's spokesman, the letter was expected to fetch at least 9,000 pounds to 12,000 pounds.

The Prime Minister Office and the Ministry of External Affairs had asked the Ministry of Culture and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations to take steps to convince Christie's not to go ahead with the auction.

The attention of the Prime Minister's Office to the proposed auction was drawn by two Gandhian - Basant Kumar Birla and Satya Paul, a senior life member of the Servants of the People Society (SPS).

Had the July 3 auction gone through, it would have been a repeat of the 1988 auction of 18 letters written by Gandhi auctioned off by Sotheby's.

ANI