Gifts received by PM Modi up for sale, price from Rs 200 to Rs 2.5 lakh

New Delhi: Shawls, portraits, silverware, headgear and swords are among the 2772 gifts received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that would be auctioned online from Saturday. The base price of the mementoes is Rs 200 and the highest is Rs 2.5 lakh.

The proceeds from the auction would go into the funding for Namami Gange project, a central government project for cleansing, conserving and rejuvenating river Ganga.

Prahlad Joshi, Culture Minister said, “The gifts received by the PM in the last six months will be auctioned. This time the auction will be completely online. I thank the PM for giving us this opportunity. The minimum reserved price for the items is Rs 200 while the highest is Rs 2.5 lakh.”

The gifts are currently on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in central Delhi’s Jaipur House. Those interested can log on to the website pmmementos.gov.in to register and participate in the auction

One of the attractions of the auction is a portrait of Modi, at a base price of Rs 2.5 lakh, done on silk and gifted by the owner of Seematti textiles Beena Kannan. The mementos include 576 shawls, 964 angavastram (clothes), 88 pagris (head-dress)and various jackets portraying the diversity of India. Each item has been evaluated by experts to fix the base price.

In January, over 1,800 gifts received by the prime minister were sold in a fortnight-long auction in which 4000 bidders had participated.