People are expected to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the honor of owning the blood of former Indian Independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Sources said a drop of Gandhi's blood would go on sale at a London auction house on Tuesday, ushering the medieval concept of relics into the 21st century — in more ways than one.
The blood in question is not caked onto bones or some old shirt, like the religious relics of days bygone. It also wasn't preserved thanks to the efforts of a Gandhi fanatic.
The blood was carefully set aside by the most modern men for the most ordinary of reasons — doctors put it on two microscope slides when Gandhi had surgery for an appendectomy in the 1920s, according to Reuters.
The iconic Indian leader is believed to have donated the blood to the people with whom he was staying at the time.
The slides have traveled far since then, landing in the hands of London's Mullock's auction house. They are selling them along with other Gandhi memorabilia, including his sandals and rice bowl. But the blood is the big item; auctioneers told Reuters they expect the slides to go for $15,200 to $22,800.
"To Gandhi devotees, it has the same status as a sacred relic to a Christian," historical documents specialist Richard Westwood-Brookes of Mullock's told Reuters.
In a weird case of irony, some of German dictator Adolph Hitler's items are also going on auction at Mullock's on Tuesday, making for an event capturing both extremes of 20th-century leadership. There's a marble slab from his bunker and a 1936 Christmas card that the Nazi leader signed while in Berlin, according to Newser.