| Russian Days at Sotheby's auction fetch 51 million dollars
NEW YORK. April 19. KAZINFORM - The Russian Days held in the framework of the Sotheby's s auction in New York on Tuesday fetched 51 million dollars. The Vision of St. Sergius When a Child" picture by modern Russian painter Nesterov proved the most expensive lot sold for 3.8 million dollars. Given a bonus the bidder is to pay to the Sotheby's fund the cost of the picture totaled 4.296 million dollars. The "Happy Arcadia" by Konstantin Makovsky was sold for 3.4 million dollars (bonus included). The bidders showed an unexpected interest in the "Young Flower Girls" picture by Alexei Kharlamov finally sold for 2.8 million dollars after numerous bids. Passions were running high over two more pictures Pirosmani's "Arsenal Hill at Night and "Lady with a Parasol" by Natalia Goncharova finally sold for 1.6 and 1.5 million dollars, respectively.
Nestle bids for India's Himalayan water - report
MUMBAI, April 16 (Reuters) - Nestle Waters, a unit of Nestle SA (NESN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest food company, has bid for India's Mount Everest Mineral Water Ltd. (MEMW.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), the Economic Times reported on Monday. India's Tata group had also bid more than 2 billion rupees ($47 million) for the company, which sells the premium Himalayan brand of bottled water, the paper said, citing unnamed sources. Nestle, which sells the Perrier brand of bottled water, launched Nestle Pure Life water in India in 2001 but pulled the brand a couple of years later. The Tatas were "close to clinching the deal" with Mount Everest, a part of the Dadi group, and were also likely to launch other beverages such as fortified water, the paper said.
Massachusetts Petitions to Foreclose Rise 80 Percent in First ...
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--It didn't get any easier for thousands of Massachusetts mortgage holders to pay their bills during the first quarter, as petitions to foreclose rose 79.8 percent compared with the first quarter in 2006. Advertisements for foreclosure auctions also jumped 191.7 percent compared with the first quarter of last year, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. Mortgage lenders filed 6,395 petitions to foreclose in Massachusetts Land Court during the first quarter, compared with 3,556 in the first quarter of 2006 and 3,130 in the first quarter of 2005. The number is slightly higher than the number of petitions in the fourth quarter of last year, when 6,376 were filed. There were 3,118 advertisements for foreclosure auctions during the first quarter compared with 1,069 during the first quarter of last year and 1,148 during the first quarter of 2005.
Artists drive a hard bargain now
KOLKATA: Pricing of artworks has become a crucial factor in today's evolving Indian art market. Of late, one has been noticing a resistance, especially to paintings, at the highest levels. Even at the middle level, prices seem to be blowing out of proportion. Although, buyers still appear to be lapping up works at price points which are below the high-end prices. "Anyone buying art wonders about the functionaries who decide the price of the piece. The artists of the earlier times like the Tagores or Nandalal Bose used to gift their paintings because they were shy of mentioning a price for their works. Artist Kshitin Majumdar was taken aback when a painting of his was sold for Rs 5,000 by Chintamoni Kar to the Indian Museum. He was expecting a fraction of the price and needed the money for medical treatment.
France finally bids goodbye to de Gaulle
MOSCOW - On Sunday, France will hold its first round of presidential elections. Who will replace Jacques Chirac? This is the question that polling agencies are now trying to answer. Every day the French media publish the results of numerous polls. All respondents agree that there are three obvious leaders in the presidential race: Segolene Royal, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Bayrou. They are followed in the polls by the ageing veteran of French politics, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who heads the far-right National Front. The remaining eight of the 12 candidates are not so much contenders for the Elysee Palace as political Olympians for whom taking part in the marathon is more important than winning it. The competition between the four heavyweights could result in some surprises, although the polls predict that Sarkozy will win the first round with Royal as the runner-up.
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