AuctionInfo.org
An iconic portrait of Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China, has been spared the auction block and will be permanently preserved in a museum, state media reported.
The original model for the Mao painting that hangs above Tiananmen Square was due for auction in June and had been expected to fetch as much as 1.2 million [...]

US Auction Info
Five former Sinclair gas stations were sold at auction here with total bids at $550,000, Higgenbotham Auctioneers said.
The bids are subject to confirmation by Sinclair Oil Corp. of Salt Lake City, which is getting out of retail gasoline sales in Montana and Idaho.
Three former stations in Great Falls were sold Tuesday, along with one in Helena and one in Lewistown.

UK Auction Info
Christie’s launched extra October sales,and this year is offering art valued at 30 million pounds.
It aims not only at wealthy buyers vying for top lots like Peter Doig’s “Pink Mountain”, valued at 500-700,000 pounds, or Marlene Dumas’ “The Cover-Up” (350-450,000 pounds), but also at younger collectors looking for less expensive art.
Christie’s is also [...]

Australian Auction Info
Businessman Jim Byrnes has offered 148 people who sold goods through his failed Cromwell’s Sydney auction house just 44c in the dollar for debts totalling $268,394.
Cromwell’s administrator Gavin Moss, who said in his report to creditors that the funds had been “misappropriated” from the company trust account, described the offer as “wishy-washy” and [...]

The Arizona State Land Department is calling off this week’s auctions of two prime pieces of residential land, one in northeast Phoenix’s Desert Ridge development and the other in Fountain Hills.
The auctions weren’t worth the agency’s time because no builders or investors are willing to pay the appraised prices of $150 million for a parcel [...]

UK Auction Info
The site of Reading’s most notorious brothel has been sold to a mystery married couple.
The 263 Club in Oxford Road and the Lost Sock launderette next door were bought together for £529,000 at a London auction on Tuesday, September 19, by the pair who wish to remain anonymous.
The massage parlour was uncovered as a brothel in November last year when its owner was jailed for controlling prostitution at the address.
A jury ruled that Jonathan Leeming was part of a joint enterprise with Lynette Beard and Donna Boorman that …

Irish Auction Info
The Sunday Independent reported yesterday that the extraordinary glut of houses coming on the Irish market this month has led to widespread falls in the prices being demanded by estate agents.
With nondescript detached houses without garages selling for €1.2m in recent times, in South Dublin, it shouldn’t be surprising that pricing at some point would hit a ceiling.
The newspaper says that in one case a red brick house on McMahon Street in Portobello off Dublin’s South Circular Road has seen its asking price slashed by 20 per cent. …

AuctionInfo.org
Nigeria is preparing to auction 50 oil and gas exploration blocks in October, the third licensing round in just over a year, the head of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said on Monday.
Tony Chukwueke said the blocks on offer would be located all over Africa’s biggest oil producer — inland, in the Niger Delta [...]

The giant insurance company MetLife wants $5 billion more in its corporate pockets and so has put the homes of 30,000 people up for grabs. After months of rumors and hints, the company announced it would sell its Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village on the east side of Manhattan for at least that sum.
The complex consists of 110 buildings on 80 acres of land stretching from 23rd Street to 14th Street, and from First Avenue to Avenue C. Of the nearly 11,000 apartments, 27 percent are rented at “market rate.” This …

A 1920s-era 10-cent stamp containing an extraordinarily rare printing error sold at auction Friday for $74,000.
Keith Marsh, owner of The Stamp Center, which handled the auction, would not disclose the identity or location of the buyer, who submitted bid by telephone as almost 100 people gathered at Marsh’s firm looked on.
Marsh had expected the [...]