Word: auctions
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...real estate lady gave us a pumpkin pie to celebrate and our heating man gave us his own maple syrup and a cup with his company’s name on it… The house is furnished with the 3 chairs we bought at auction and a blue...
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...
Furthermore, in ancient civilizations such as India and China, some spoils of war and colonialism purloined a century or two ago by invaders have gradually come to be considered the legitimate property of whoever possesses them. Many international dealers and auction houses argue that Asia's turbulent history makes it simply impossible for them to track the chain of ownership. But He, from Beijing-based Cultural Heritage Watch, says dealers aren't trying hard enough and adds, "Can you imagine a Renoir suddenly appearing on the international market without any history of where it came from? It's outrageous that...
Tang and his colleagues moved fast. The Chinese embassy in Washington dispatched a representative to the auction house's New York office. At first, according to a Chinese diplomat, Sotheby's refused to exclude Lot 32 from auction, saying the Chinese didn't have enough proof that the items had been taken from an imperial tomb just months before. Phillips, the Sotheby's spokeswoman, says it had an unequivocal written warranty stating that the owner had good title to the objects. She also noted that none of the statuettes appeared in the Art Loss Registry, an international database of stolen...