Auctioneers Sothebyโs announced on Wednesday morning that it was postponing the sale in Hong Kong later that day of sacred Buddhist relics in response to a demand from the Indian government.
New Delhi also demanded the immediate repatriation of the relics.
The โPiprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddhaโ were to have been one of the highlights of a fortnight of auctions ongoing in Hong Kong that are focused on Asian works of art.
According to a member of the family which consigned them for auction, the relics in question are โduplicatesโ of precious stones, pearls and pieces of gold believed to have been buried around 2,000 years ago with the corporeal remains of the Buddha.
Carved into floral and other motifs, they were unearthed in 1898 in what today is Uttar Pradesh state in India by a British engineer, William Claxton Peppรฉ, in a stupa near the Buddhaโs birthplace.
They were found with ash and bones which an inscription in the ancient Pali script described as the โrelics of the Buddha, the August Oneโ.