Hong Kong – A collection of old gems linked to the remains of Buddha has been repatriated to India after the authorities criticized their auction planned by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong.
“A cheerful day for our cultural heritage!” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday at a position on X.
The Piprahwa gems were sold to the Indian conglomerate Godrej Industries Group, which will put the dazzling collection “on public exhibition in the coming years,” Sotheby’s said in a statement on Thursday.
The auction house refused to reveal how much Godrej paid for gems. “Due to the confidential nature of private sales, the final sale price will not be revealed,” Sotheby’s a NBC News told.
The 334 gems were expected to obtain more than 100 million dollars from Hong Kong ($ 12.9 million) in an auction.
The precious stones are part of a cache of more than 1,800 artifacts, mostly housed in the Indian Museum of Kolkata. Critics of the planned auction of gems, that British colonial landowner William CLXTON PEPPÉ unearthed his property of northern India in 1898, said he was offensive for the 500 million Buddhists of the world and a violation of Indian and international law and the conventions of the United Nations.
Many Buddhists believe that precious stones, named for the city in what is now the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where they were buried in a stupid, or a funeral monument, around 200 to 240 BC.
“It would be proud of all the Indians that the sacred relics of Piprahwa of Bhagwan Buddha have returned home after 127 long years,” Modi said, referring to Buddha as a god in Hindi.
“These sacred relics highlight the close association of India with Bhagwan Buddha and its noble teachings,” he added.
Sotheby’s postponed the planned auction of gems in May after the Indian government threatened legal actions and demanded its repatriation.
The Indian government said at that time that Peppé’s great -grandson, Chris Peppé, television director and film editor based in Los Angeles, lacked the authority to sell gems. Nueva Delhi also accused Sotheby’s of “participating in continuous colonial exploitation” by facilitating the sale and said that gems must be returned to India if Peppé no longer wishes to be his custodian.
“I hope you go to someone who really values them,” Peppé wrote in an article in February for Sotheby’s that accompanies the auction catalog.
They were on public exhibition in Hong Kong in the days prior to the auction in three glass boxes, which contain bright silver and gold leaves to the size of a relief with relief with symbols. They also include pearls, accounts and flowers cut with precious stones, such as amethyst, topacio, garnet, coral and glass.
Later, Sotheby’s announced that the auction had been postponed “with the agreement of the consigners”, three descendants of the British colonial landowner who excavated them.
On Thursday, the auction house said it had “facilitated the return” of gems to India, thanking the Peppé family.
“This completes our active search in the last two months to identify the best possible custodian for gems,” said Sotheby’s.
