The New York Times’s City Room covers the Gandhi sale in detail:
The buyer was identified as Vijay Mallya, an Indian liquor and airline executive who owns the company that makes Kingfisher beer. A representative for Mr. Mallya, Tony Bedhi, did the bidding and later announced that the belongings would be returned to India for public display, but it was not clear whether they would be turned over to the government, as some officials have demanded. [ . . . ]
The bidders included a dozen people in the room, 30 people on the phone, and about two dozen people who submitted written bids. The auction house said it would keep possession of the items for two weeks in order to make sure there were no legal claims over ownership. The second highest bid was a $1.75 million bid submitted online from Britain, said the auction house. [ . . . ]
At that point, the contest became a bidding war between Mr. Bedi, representing Mr. Mallya, and Arlan Ettinger, the president of Guernsey’s Auction House, representing a former Indian cricketer, Dilip Doshi, who now works for a company that distributes Montblanc pens and other luxury items. After a phone bidder declined to push Mr. Bedi’s bid at $1.8 million, Mr. Bedi was declared the winner. The room burst into applause. Mr. Ettinger said afterwards that Mr. Doshi was trying to buy the items on behalf of the Indian government.
Gandhi Items Sold for $1.8 Million (New York Times)
