Journalists gather during an auction outside residence of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, Myanmar on March 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP
The lakeside mansion where Myanmar’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent years under house arrest went under auction on Wednesday with a minimum price of $150 million — but attracted no bids, officials said.
The two-storey house and 1.9 acre of land were put up for sale following a decades-long dispute over the property between the Nobel laureate — who has been detained since the 2021 military coup — and her brother.
For around 15 years, Suu Kyi was confined within the house’s crumbling walls by the military after she shot to fame during huge demonstrations against the then-junta in 1988.
After her release in 2010, she continued to live at the villa, but left Yangon in 2012.
Ahead of the auction, a small crowd — mostly of journalists — gathered outside the colonial-era house on leafy University Avenue.
Officials emerged from the locked gates and announced the opening of the auction by striking a small bell three times. Above the gate, a portrait of Ms. Suu Kyi’s father, the independence hero Aung San, watched over the proceedings, while a notice advertised the price as 315 billion kyats, or $150 million.
When the auctioneer held his hand up for bids, there was only silence. “There is no one to bid,” he announced, and the bell struck again to close the auction.
Plainclothes security officers took photos of journalists covering the event.
