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Journalism of Courage
A Silver-mounted Flintlock sporting gun from Tipu Sultan’s personal armoury; a Flintlock pistol made for the artillery lover by Asad E. Amin in the Royal Workshop at Seringapatam; a wooden five-claw tiger’s paw that was once covered in a sheet of gold and held up Tipu’s throne. These are just some of the 30 new additions of liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s Tipu Sultan memorabilia.
On Wednesday, the UB group chief bought roughly half of the 64 items in the Tipu Sultan Collection that went under the hammer at Sotheby’s, in London. ‘‘I got everything that I had my eye on,’’ Mallya said from London. His new purchases make him one of the largest single owners of Tipu memorabilia.
The collection that went on sale originally belonged to Robin Wigington, an author who built it up over 30 years. The pre-auction estimate was Rs 6.3 crore; the collection’s final tally was Rs 9.7 crore.
But Mallya, who spent more than a half a million pounds, is sharpening his swords for a fight of his own. Just a day after the purchase, Mallya insisted that he will not get tied up with Customs authorities again. ‘‘If the government doesn’t care about what I’ve done for the country then I shall take my collection wherever I please. I’ll keep it in London or take it to the US.’’
Only recently, Mallya was told off for first importing, then re-exporting an artifact — a 205-year-old sword that belonged to Tipu Sultan, which he purchased in the UK, brought to India, then sent to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco for display — without permission.
‘‘I want to set up a Tipu Sultan museum in Bangalore, but they’ve given me a lot of grief,’’ he said, about authorities. He will put in ‘‘comprehensive’’ papers to get things straightened out for the artifacts to make their way back to their country of origin more than two centuries after their exit. ‘‘If the politicians don’t mess up, then don’t worry, we’ll have them all back where they belong soon,’’ he said.
