A pair of Indian politician and human rights campaigner Mahatma Gandhi's glasses have sold for almost €300 (£260.000) after they were found half sticking out of an auction house's letterbox.
The glasses were sold to an American collector during a telephone auction on Friday, after six minutes of bidding.
Andrew Stow of the auction house East Bristol Auctions he said it was a new record and described it as the "sale of the century".
The estimated sale value was around £15.000.
Stow says the glasses seller is an elderly man living in the British town of Mangotsfield, who said he would split the money with his daughter.
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Gandhi's glasses have been passed down from generation to generation in the family, since the 1920s, when an ancestor met Gandhi in South Africa.
"It's a phenomenal sale. It's not just another auction, but a discovery of international and historical significance," says Stow.
A "life-changing" sum
The glasses were left in the auction house's box in a plain white envelope on Friday evening. The auctioneers noticed them only on Monday morning.
"They could have easily fallen out of there or been stolen, they could have even ended up in the trash," recounts Stow.
He says the owner had no idea how much they were worth and "almost had a heart attack" when he was told they were valued at £15.000.
"The glasses mostly lay in a drawer for fifty years. The seller literally told me to throw them away if they were no good."
"Now he's got a life-changing sum for them."
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. If you have a topic suggestion for us, please contact bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.ukGandi was known for his habit of giving away his belongings, says the auctioneer
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