Delhi: More than Rs 15 cr raised in five years by auctioning off PM's gifts says Minister

culture ministry on Tuesday informed Parliament that Rs 15.13 crore was raised from auction of mementos and gifts presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in last five years.

In an answer to a query in Rajya Sabha, Culture Minister Prahl Patel said that money h been raised during three auctions -- February 18-20, 2015, January 27-April 1, 2019 and September 14-October 24, 2019.

Auction of over 2,700 gifts

Earlier, Over 2,700 gifts Prime Minister Narendra Modi received from across country will go under hammer from September 14 and fund generated will be used for conservation and rejuvenation of Ganga, Culture Minister Prahl Patel said on September 11.

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Currently, on display at  National Gallery of Modern Arts here, a total of 2,772 gifts including hegears, shawls, portraits, swords gifted by different organisations and chief ministers to PM will be up for auction on an online portal designed by  National Informatics Centre.

" gifts received by PM in last six months will be auctioned. This time auction will be completely online (earlier an auction happened in January). I thank PM for giving us this opportunity. minimum reserve price for items is Rs 200 while highest is Rs 2.5 lakh," Patel said.

At a base price of Rs 2.5 lakh, a portrait of Modi done on silk and gifted by couturier and owner of Seematti textiles Beena Kannan has been tagged as most expensive item. base or reserved price of items has been fixed by experts. minister said that items up for auction which is being displayed at NGMA will be changed every 15 days.

In January auction, over 1,800 gifts received by prime minister were sold in a fortnight-long exercise and around 4,000 bidders participated. funds generated went towards Namami Gange, a central government project to clean Ganga.

proceeds from upcoming auction will also go to same project. A wooden replica of BMW built by artisans was most expensive memento to be sold at e-auction, officials said, which fetched Rs 5 lakh. y, however, refused to reveal total amount generated in January auction.

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