Sotheby’s returns Buddha jewels to India after uproar

After the Auction House Sotheby’s, the Indian government and the global Buddhist leaders, a series of sacred jewelery that was believed to depend on the ruins of Buddha gave back.

Piprahwa jewels, which are defined as one of the most amazing findings of the modern age by archaeologists Due to the auction in Hong Kong May. However, sales were called after diplomatic intervention and legal process threats from Delhi.

Sotheby’s, Mumbai -based Holding Godrej Industries, said the group had purchased jewels.

Sotheby’s, the owner, the new buyer and the Indian government, including two -month negotiations after two -month negotiations, said it was “very happy”. The auction house said the remains will now be released permanently publicly open in India.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced On Wednesday, a return is a “proud and cheerful moment” and a victory for the cultural heritage of the country. The remains in X came home 127 years later.

According to the website, jewelry buyer Godrej Industries Group serves more than 1.1 billion consumers worldwide in sectors, including consumer goods, real estate, agriculture, finances and chemicals. Most of its products are home names in India.

“We are very honored to make this historical main contribution. Piprahwa jewels are not only the works, but also peace, compassion and shared inheritance symbols. Press statement.

In 1898, the British Real Estate Manager William Claxton Peppé in a stuppé in Piprahwa in North India, near the Buddha’s birthplace, contained about 1,800th of the bone trailers defined by a Urn written by Buddha.

Peppé finally surrendered most of the ruins and information to the colonial Indian government: bone ruins went to the Buddhist King (Rama V). Five residues were sent to the Indian Museum in the Calcutta – Calcutta Empire Museum in Calcutta.

For more than a century, the rest of the dazzling jewels remained greatly hidden in a special British collection.

The 300 jewelry set held by the Peppé family was exhibited openly in Sotheby’s Hong Kong in February and May. For the last six years, GEMS has been involved in large exhibitions, including Met in 2023. The family also launched a website to share their research.

Historians think about the common legacy of Buddha’s Sakya clan and Buddhists worldwide. Since then, bone fragments have been distributed to countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, where they remained objects of respect.

The planned sale of the Buddha ruins in Hong Kong by Sotheby’s led to widespread ethical concerns that questioning whether the sacred objects of academics and Buddhist leaders – especially those linked to human remains – should be considered as goods.

Critics, the seller’s ruins of the authority to open the authority to auction, defenders are the most fair way to transfer a transparent sale of custody, he said. For many Buddhists, jewels should not be separated from the holy remains and should not be sold.

“Is the ruins of Buddha a commodity that can be treated as a work of art to be sold in the market?” Naman Ahuja, a Delhi -based art historian, told BBC in May. “And because they are not, how does the seller authorize them ethically to auction?

“Since it is called ‘custody’ to the seller, I want to ask – on behalf of custody?

In May, William’s great grandson Chris Peppé said in May that the BBC was looking to donate the remnants of the family, but all options offered problems, and a auction seemed to be the most fair and most transparent way to transfer these remnants to Buddhists “.

He said in all monasteries that “no Buddhist has seen them as material remains”.

“A few Buddhist academics in Western universities have recently offered a curved, reality -defining logic that they can be accepted in this way. This is generally an academic structure that is familiar with the details of the findings by Buddhists.” He said.

On May 7, Sotheby postponed the auction of jewels following the media reports and concerns brought to the agenda by the Indian government and showed the need for more discussion. A week later, he confirmed the ongoing talks with India to find a mutual acceptable solution.

This week, Sotheby’s confirming the return of jewels, “Peppé’s family protected jewels and with us and the government of India to work in good faith to achieve this historical conclusion,” he said.