Mementos gifted to PM go under the hammer

Team Udayavani, Jan 27, 2019, 10:06 AM IST

New Delhi: The mementos gifted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi will go under the hammer at a two-day auction starting Sunday.

The funds raised through the auction, held at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Delhi, will go to the government’s flagship project ‘Namami Gange’.

A dedicated site – http://pmmementos.gov.in”pmmementos.gov.in has been set up to display and e-auction the mementos that are priced between Rs 100 and Rs 30,000. Visitors to the site can search through the mementos on the basis of price range.

One can also filter through the mementos on the basis of material – brass, ceramic, cloth, glass, gold, metallic item etc. Each product has been listed with a short description including its dimensions, weight and who gifted the memento to the prime minister.

The only gold-plated memento on auction is an idol of Radha and Krishna, the base price for which has been set at Rs 20,000. The 4.76 kg idol was gifted to the prime minister by the Mandvi Nagar Palika in Surat.

A 2.22 kg silver plate, gifted to the prime minister by former BJP MP C Narasimhan, priced at Rs 30,000, is the most expensive memento in the catalogue with a blue brocade shawl with tassels being the least expensive at Rs 200.

Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma earlier said that 1900 gifts received nationally and internationally by the Prime Minister will be on auction.