Word: auction
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Inside Ghia's home, the cops say they found hundreds of photographs of looted 9th to 11th century statues, a long list of private collectors' phone numbers and 68 auction-house catalogs featuring some of the same artifacts. Based on a detailed confession from Ghia, police claim he spent 30 years smuggling an estimated 50,000 idols, paintings and statues stolen from protected monuments around the country. On Sept. 2, charges were filed against Ghia and 21 alleged looters believed to be part of his smuggling ring. Police retrieved stolen goods from some of them, including a dismantled Mughal pavilion...
Some items that Ghia allegedly stole ended up on the block in Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses, say Indian authorities. Relics listed in Christie's catalogs that police say were taken by Ghia included a 2.6-ft. sandstone frieze with an estimated value of $200,000 to $300,000 and a 2.7-ft. statue of the Hindu god Shiva. A Jain statue that was reported stolen on Oct. 7, 1999, turned up as Lot 135 in a Sotheby's September 2000 catalog...
...entirely possible, however, that the auction houses and galleries did not know the items were stolen. "Christie's are in contact with authorities and are helping them with their inquiries," said a spokesperson for Christie's London office. "As the investigation is ongoing, we do not have any further information to release at this time." Diana Phillips, senior vice president at Sotheby's, says, "We have not knowingly sold any items consigned by Mr. Ghia or companies affiliated with him for the past several years." Sotheby's, says Phillips, does not offer for sale "any object that we know...
...Search For 'Kaching!' Investors drooled over Google's plans for an initial public offering early next year, probably valuing the online search engine at more than $15 billion. Reports suggest the IPO could be conducted through an online stock auction...
...there is no need to import one, says Nicole Paquette, legal-affairs director for the Animal Protection Institute in Sacramento, Calif.: "Tigers reproduce easily, and there are plenty of backyard breeders producing cubs. They're like puppy mills." Anyone who wants a tiger can go to an alternative-livestock auction. Or if that is too much trouble, they can just surf the Web, where large-scale breeding operations and mom-and-pop outfits advertise cubs for as little as $300. "A tiger," says Paquette, "can be significantly cheaper than a purebred...