Auction house Sotheby’s has postponed the auction of a collection of hundreds of jewels linked to Buddha’s remains after India’s government threatened legal action and demanded the jewels be returned.

The sale in Hong Kong of the collection, known as the “Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha Mauryan Empire, Ashokan Era, circa 240-200 BCE”, has drawn criticism from Buddhist academics and monastic leaders.

India’s government said in a 5 May letter to the auction house that the relics constituted “inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community. Their sale violates Indian and international laws, as well as United Nations conventions.”

The auction was due to take place on Wednesday morning. Sotheby’s said in an emailed statement that in light of the matters raised by India’s government “and with the agreement of the consignors, the auction … has been postponed. This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate.”

Notice of the gems sale had been removed from its auction house on Wednesday and the website page promoting the auction was no longer available.

Sotheby’s had said in February that the 1898 discovery of the relics at Piprahwa in northern India ranked “among the most extraordinary archaeological discoveries of all time”.

The gems include amethysts, coral, garnets, pearls, rock crystals, shells and gold, either worked into pendants, beads and other ornaments, or in their natural form.

They were originally buried in a dome-shaped funerary monument, called a stupa, in Piprahwa, in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India, between 240BC and 200BC, when they were mixed with some of the cremated remains of the Buddha, who died about 480BC.

India said that the proposed auction “offends the sentiments of over 500 million Buddhists worldwide”, adding that the sale violated core Buddhist ethics and disrupted “sacred tradition”.

With Reuters