E-auction of over 1,200 items gifted to PM Modi goes live

An online auction of over 1,200 items, including a model statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and sporting memorabilia of Commonwealth Games medallists, gifted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has gone live.

The auction began on Saturday morning, coinciding with Modi’s birthday.

”The time has arrived! It’s 10AM and the #PMMementosAuction2022 is now open & live! Head to HYPERLINK ”//pmmementos.gov.in” pmmementos.gov.in to register & participate in the auction in which exclusive gifts received by Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh @NarendraModi have been listed,” Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy tweeted.

At a press conference here on Friday, Reddy had said a statue of Lord Ganesha, a trident, models of the upcoming Shri Ram Mandir at Ayodhya and the Kashi-Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi will also be part of the e-auction of gifts and mementoes given to PM Modi, proceeds of which will go the Namami Gange Mission.

The black model statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was gifted to Modi in April by sculptor Arun Yogiraj.

Yogiraj and his team, sculpted the monolithic 28-ft statue of Netaji, made of telephone black granite stone, recently unveiled by the Prime Minister at India Gate.

Twenty-five new sporting memorabilia gifted to the Prime Minister by various sportspersons are part of the auction, a senior official of the Culture Ministry said on Friday.

The auction will conclude on October 2. Some of the gifts are on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art.