If India wants the objects, I'm sure India can come up with the money to buy them. Last I heard, Gandhi hasn't been eleveated to the status of a saint or god, but if there are some who want to consider these objects to be holy relics, they need to place the highest bid.

It seems a little disgraceful to auction off these items expecting $20-30K. If it weren't for the history of ownership attached to them they would have a value of much, much less. It's difficult to put a price on historical value...is it priceless? Or price-less?

Yet, certain people want these things at any price...and they don't care about the condition of country/world as it is right now. They have the spare change, they want to spend it, and really, it's none of anyone's business how rich people spend their money, except that regular folks are hurting so right now....it's kind of shameless in a way.

Mr. Otis seems willing to work with the Indian government, if they want the items so badly.

"I have a contract with the auction house to sell these items, but as you know you can make a deal prior the auction. I would be very happy to welcome any serious offers from the Indian government and it might not even have to be financial," he said. "There are things they could offer in terms of helping the people of India that I would more than welcome, for example improving health care for the poorest Indians in exchange for the items."

But, of course, improving health care or any other such notable aide for the destitute would cost far more than $20-30K so it's kind of a hollow offer.

In the end, peace activist Mr. Otis will get his money, India might get the items if they are the highest bidder, the 'untouchables' will get no help, the rest of us will sigh and dream about all the bills we could pay with $20,000, and the beat goes on.

Sorry, I meant that as a joke. Planet Bollywood, Planet Hollywood ... pop culture relics on the wall, etc. Right next to the a section of the set from Slumdog Millionaire.

Fuck 'em all, DD. All these ghouls. Yeah yeah, this guy's a great humanitarian. He's selling the results of one of Gandhi's BLOOD TESTS. I can't even joke about this. Fuck people.

Of course. Used, even.

Mr.Smith1, I happen to love NYC, have family members living there, a forty year old son born there, etc, etc. I own a NYPD knit cap which I wear on 9/11 anniversaries though it's usually warm here on that day.

Note to participants (no pun intended): Google earth should l give a more precise location for the auction.

So the NYT now says the items sold for $1.8 million. An Indian industrialist bought them and is apparently taking them back to India.

The seller, Otis, apparently had a change of heart and sent a lawyer to try and cancel the sale, but the Antiquorum company insisted it now had a legal DUTY to proceed.

I found THIS bit ever so touching, "As soon as Lot No. 364, the Gandhi items, came up for sale shortly after 3 p.m., a hush settled across the room and a slide show of Gandhi was displayed, with a recording of piano music."

Fuck Antiquorum.

AND their goddamn piano player.

"Given the years Ghandi lived, his vegetarian diet, and the large amount of beans he probably ate... and the length of my life and the number of breaths I've taken there's a high probability that I've breathed in an atom or 2 of Ghandi's farts. Doesn't make me holy ..."

Actually ... one of the closely guarded secrets of the universe is ... that it does. (Shh ... and remember, you didn't hear it from me, okay?)

I am beginning to think there is no Ghandi out there for the masses right now. There is the Dalai Lama, but he wants to retire. :o) Maybe the best we can do for ourselves is to find a personal pacifist to emulate. I have a couple of Elders that are truly pacifists and they tell me I am an unending source of concern for them, that I am too easily called to war. But, so far, they haven't kicked me out of the teepee. ;o)

Hmmmm. Maybe will have to be our own Ghandis.

Any report on whether or not David Vitter has made a bid on the diaper yet?

Yva, It's become farce at this point. This guy is running scared, changing his story right and left, and now... retreating from the fray entirely. I don't blame him, either. Idiot.

He started out looking to raise money - granted, he said a portion was for a cause I support, namely FOR. He accepted that the auction house would get their cut, but he had no specific India link in mind. He actually said he'd hoped Obama or the US Gov't might buy them and put them on display in DC - but admitted the auction risked the pieces being locked away by some private collector.

Then when India got upset, he proposed two (financial) options to them - that India increase by 4% of its GDP the amount spent on health, or that they fund a 78 nation tour to promote Gandhi's message. Again, I agree with the substance of both these changes, but you've already raised the little issue of why he didn't propose that his OWN nation raise health care spending, especially when proposing that the US Government buy the items.

As public upset rose, Otis apparently sent his lawyer to stop the proceedings, but the auction house wouldn't. At which point, his lawyer stated that the auction house was trying to make money on "the altar of Gandhi's legacy." A bit odd, given that Otis had already signed an agreement with the auction house that they could take their share. Suddenly he's wheeling in Gandhi's "altar."

We also now know the guy has a major film - and book, and multiple other tie-in's - coming out about Gandhi. But hey, he's argued that since Gandhi himself, when alive, auctioned his own stuff off for charity... he'd likely laugh when other people did it, after he was dead, for their own particular reasons.

Gandhi had a great sense of humor, but he also had a pretty good way to detect stuff going on beneath the surface. He might even ask - being a man somewhat interested in Empire - if Americans would think it ok if say, an Indian guy sold off George Washington's false teeth and JFK's blood test results to another country, like Iran or Russia or China, or maybe even their GOVERNMENT. And then, if Americans protested, whether it would be ok if the Indian seller announced that the US would have to divert an extra 4% of GDP into a proposal he'd selected (that'd be the equivalent of about $550 billion, by the way.) Who needs democracy, when you own their bones, eh?

And now - farce almost complete - Otis says he's "embarking on a 23 day fast to consider his actions, apparently meaning his desire to auction off the items."

And he also owns one of the world's largest collections of Dr Suess-related items. Maybe he'll hold Thing One and Thing Two ransom and demand a 40% cut in global carbon emissions.

But hey. It's all good, always is if you're raising money, right? All values are to be subsumed under monetary ones. It's not like we've run into any trouble on that front recently.

Though I suspect I'm elitist or something for thinking this way.

Second thought, naw. I'm not. The stench of money madness, swollen film-maker egos and Imperialism seems pretty damned clear from here.

Goodnight Gandhi! And hang onto your teeth old boy, we know where you live!

That reminds me of a photo that appeared in Life magazine during World War Two; a young wife sitting, looking at a souvenir her husband had sent her from the war; a human skull. I think it was a Japanese soldier's skull. I was still in high school when I came across that image, and it's remained with me. I just kept thinking, that was somebody's father's skull and how sad they must be ...