Blue diamond sets auction record
A flawless blue diamond that fetched $7.98m (?3.93m) has set a record as the most expensive gemstone per carat bought at auction.
Moussaieff Jewellers of London bought the stone from a private Asian collector at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong.
Bidding for the emerald-cut 6.04 carat diamond lasted eight minutes.
The stone sold for $1.32m per carat, easily beating the previous record of $926,000 per carat.
That was set by a red diamond sold in New York 20 years ago.
"The bidding was fast and furious and you know it's not as if one could go out and buy another one," said Quek Chin Yeow, head of Jewellery Asia at Sotheby's.
"It's as rare as getting a Renoir or a wonderful Rothko."
"When you look at the stone, it sings," he said. "The cutting is wonderful."
There is increasing demand for coloured diamonds among jewellery collectors in Europe, the United States and Asia.
Blue diamonds are mostly found at the Premier Mine in South Africa.
Ozzy, Sharon Osbourne To Auction Personal Items
Sharon Osbourne must believe that now that her son is out of the house, his bed has to go.
Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne are holding an auction to get rid of personal belongings, including Jack Osbourne's black leather bed.
They're also parting with a cast-iron crucifix that was in Ozzy's den during several episodes of their hit reality show "The Osbournes," as well as a pair of Ozzy's sunglasses, his favorite tea cup and the bronze devil's head plaque from the front door.
The auction also includes the ATV quad bike that was involved in Ozzy's serious accident at his English estate in December 2003.
Sharon Osbourne said now that their three kids have moved out, "we just have an overabundance of possessions that we do not need."
Ozzy Osbourne has other ideas.
"I don't know why we are selling everything as I want it all," he said.
Pearl Bracelets | Boxing | Binoculars The auction will be held Nov. 30 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Part of the proceeds will benefit the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Foundation.
Businessman puts roof over items up for auction
A local businessman will expand his auctioneering business this week-end with his first in-house auction, featuring a 2003 Harley-Davidson motorcycle and three partial estates.
Don Crist of Crist & Associates Auction & Realty will open the auction floor at 8 a.m. Saturday for customers to register and get their bid numbers, then begin the auction at 10 a.m. The indoor auction site is at the southeast corner of Harrison and Walnut streets, which formerly housed the Butternut Bread Store. Crist's office, also a part of the building, is at 147 N. Walnut St.
Parking is available on the street or in the city parking garage across from the auction house.
"I've been an auctioneer for more than 15 years," said Crist, who is also the Vermilion County supervisor of assessments and a real estate broker and appraiser. "I've had to turn down a lot of personal property sales late in the year because of iffy weather, so having a place to hold in-house auctions has been an idea for a long time."
Crist has installed rows of theater-style seating for the comfort of bidders in a portion of his warehouse. A concession stand is also available in an adjacent room.
"I wanted a place where we could hold an indoor auction once a month, and this is the best place because we can prepare for sale or store them until an appropriate sale," Crist said. "I think the seating will be a little nostalgic as well as comfortable.
The auctioneer considers his client base to be family members, estate executors, attorneys, banks and collectors who want to turn property into cash.
His staff will go through an estate determining what will sell and what needs to be disposed of.
Turkish cbank FX auction attracts bids of $145 mln
Turkey's Central Bank said on Tuesday it received bids of $145 million at its daily dollar-buying auction, almost five times its new $30 million purchase limit.
The bank bought the maximum $30 million at a maximum price of 1.1902 lira, central bank data showed.
Banks then sold an additional $60 million, the maximum amount in an option facility after the tender.
Faced with a strengthening lira, on Friday the central bank said it was raising the maximum volume of the auction to $30 million from $15 million and that of the option to $60 million from $30 million because of increased capital flows.