A lucky buyer just purchased a pair of glasses worn by legendary freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi for £260,000 GBP (approximately Rs 2.5 crore) at East Bristol Auctions.

The spectacles were bought by an American buyer via a phone bid. The original price was set at £15,000 GBP, but ended up being sold for over ten times the original price at £260,000 GBP. According to a BBC report, the sale set a new record for East Bristol Auctions and was described as “the star lot of the century”.

The previous owner of the glasses was an elderly man from Mangotsfield, who had the glasses passed down from one generation to another. The owner’s relative acquired the glasses after meeting Gandhi on a visit to South Africa in the 1920s.

“These glasses have been lying in a drawer for the best part of fifty years,” auctioneer Andrew Stowe said. “The vendor literally told me to throw them away if they were ‘no good’. Now he gets a life-changing sum of money.”

Stowe added, “It’s a phenomenal result. These glasses represent not only an auction record for us, but a find of international historical importance.”