Just before Gandhi's items went under hammer, the auctioneer explained the position and said it plans to keep the items for two weeks pending the decision of the Justice Department.

Mallya's move came as a total surprise as his name was never mentioned among those who might bid for the items. The bid on the floor was made by his representative Bedi and it was not until the auction was over that the liquor baron's name surfaced to the surprise of everyone present.

One of the bidders was a South African, who was very much interested in the items. Bids were received over the phone and Internet from overseas. None of the bidders were identified.

So much interest was aroused that the auctioneers showed a small clip of Gandhi's everyday activities before bringing his belongings to auction. And the bid increased so fast that it was impossible to keep track.

Within three minutes, the bid had reached USD one million. After that it slowed downed a bit but picked pace against. Once it reached USD 1.8 million, the person auctioning the items waited for quite a while before bringing down the hammer.

Originally, Antiquorum Auctioneers had fixed the base price of the items between USD 20,000 and 30,000 but the media hype and interest shown by the Indian government helped to shoot up the prices and bid itself began around USD 300,000.

After the auction, Chairman of the auction house Robert Maron expressed satisfaction that the items would go back to India and explained his position as to why the auction

... contd.