Gandhi’s classes sold for £260, 000 in UK auction

Indian Icon Mahatma Gandhi’s pair of gold-plated glasses have sold in Britain for £260, 000 after being found hanging in the letterbox of a Bristol auction house. Mahatma Gandhi gave the glasses worn by him to the vendor’s uncle while he was working for British Petroleum in South Africa during the 1920s or 30s said the auction house.

The spectacles were bought through a phone bid from an American collector after six minutes of bidding on Friday.

Auctioneer Andrew Stowe said it was a new record for East Bristol Auctions and described it as “the star lot of the century”.

The glasses had been expected to sell for about £15, 000.

The owner of the glasses an elderly man from Mangotsfield who said he would split the month with his daughter.

The glasses had been handed down from generation to generation in the owner’s family after a relative met Gandhi on a visit to South Africa in the 1920s.

The glasses had been left in a plain white envelope in a letterbox at East Bristol Auctions on a Friday night and were not collected until the following Monday morning. “ They could quite easily have been stolen or fallen out or just ended up in the bin,” Mr. Stove said.

The owner had no idea of their value and “nearly had a heart attack” when he was told they might be worth £15, 000.

“These glasses have been lying in a drawer for the best part of fifty years. The vendor literally told me to throw them away if they were “no good”. Now he gets a life-changing sum of money”.