Christie's calls off Gandhi's letter auction

London, July 3: The manuscript by Mahatma Gandhi written just 19 days before his assassination was withdrawn from Albin Schram Collection of 572 historical handwritten letters being auctioned by London auction house Christie's today after the Indian government's intervention.

''The executors of Albin Schram have agreed to withdraw the Gandhi manuscript from Tuesday's auction in order that it may be acquired by the Indian Government,'' Mr Mathew Patton of Christie's said.

It was estimated that it would fetch around 12,000 pound.

The executors agreed to ''facilitate its acquisition by the government''. ''We are interested in the manuscript.

We are now working out the right mechanism for its return to India,'' High Commission said.

Dr Amin Jaffer, International Director of Asian Art at Christie's, said, ''We are pleased to have facilitated the negotiations which have resulted in an important historical record returning to India.'' A few years ago the sale of letters exchanged between Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Bari were negotiated for Sir Gulam K Noon and Narootam Puri, who acquired them for 29,000 pound.

Sir Noon and Puri had handed over the letters to the then President K R Narayanan.

The present manuscript is signed ''M.K. Gandhi'', n.p., 11 January 1948, and is a draft of an article for, 'Urdu Harijan'.

UNI

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