Not even Marilyn Monroe's pink dress could match Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's suit.
The black suit, with his name Narendra Damodardas Modi printed in pinstripes, was auctioned for 43 million rupees ($690,735) in Surat, said Rajendra Kumar, the senior-most bureaucrat in the city. Monroe's shocking pink dress from the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes fetched $310,000 in 2010, according to Vogue magazine.
Modi wore the suit when he hosted U.S. President Barack Obama on the lawns of the colonial style Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Jan. 25. Close-up photographs of the suit published by a newspaper drew the ire of the opposition and even became a discussion point in this month's local elections in New Delhi.