Face of Nation : A silver kalash gifted to Narendra Modi by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was sold for Rs 1 crore on Monday at the ongoing e-auction of the gifts presented to the Prime Minister during his official visits to various parts of the country in the last six months.
The kalash with a coconut on top, which carried a message in Gujarati, has fetched 5 times its base price of Rs 18,000. The kalash was amount the two pieces that were kept next to each other at the National Gallery of Modern Art. Both are made of silver covered in a glass case.
Among other items that fetched higher amounts included a photo stand of PM Modi which was also sold for Rs 1 crore against a base price of only Rs 500. A metallic sculpture of a cow feeding a calf was sold for Rs 51 lakh against a base price of Rs 1,500.
The proceeds of this e-auction, which began on September 14 and will continue till October 3, will go to Namami Gange, a central government project to clean the Ganga. This is the second such auction of gifts received by PM Modi.
The minimum reserved price for this year’s objects ranges from Rs 200 to Rs 2.5 lakh. A portrait of PM Modi done on silk and gifted by couturier and the owner of Seematti textiles Beena Kannan has the highest base price of Rs 2 lakh. The base or reserved prices of the items have been fixed by experts.
This year over 2,700 mementos (shawls, jackets, portraits, swords, headgear) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi received from across the country were being auctioned from September 14.
