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Jewels linked to Buddha remains go to auction, sparking ethical debate

Buddha’s sacred jewels, unearthed in 1898, head to auction at Sotheby’s, raising ethical concerns.

"As is the case with any important items and collectibles that are offered for sale at Sotheby's, we conducted requisite due diligence, including in relation to authenticity and provenance, legality and other considerations in line with our policies and industry standards for artworks and treasures," King said. "The colonisation of India by the British had been a source of some cultural shame for me [and continues to be] but, amidst the treasure hunters who hauled their finds back to England, there had also been people focused on the pursuit of knowledge," Chris Peppé writes. "The Sotheby's auction transforms these highly sacred materials into saleable objects, in continuation of acts of colonial violence which extracted them from a stupa and called them 'gems' and 'objects of interest to Europeans', creating a false division with the ash and bone fragments they were consecrated with," say Thompson and Cheong.

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