| Stars Partake in Elephant Project Auction
Broadway, film, and TV stars have been posing for photos with elephants for a charity project called the Elephant Project to benefit the Alzheimer's Association. Celebrities including Felicity Huffman, Kristin Chenoweth, and Julianne Moore, have been posing with an elephant beanie baby and signing specialized Elephant Project cards in order to create items for auctions. Rounds of auctions are held every few months, with each celebrity package consisting of an 8x10 photo of the celebrity and an elephant, an autographed card, and an elephant beanie baby.The current round of auctions began on April 15th and 16th and will end on April 22nd and 23rd. At this time, forty celebrity packages have been placed on eBay in hopes of raising over a thousand dollars by the end of the round.The Elephant Project was created in July 2006 by 16-year old David Niederhoffer, who wanted to create an organization to raise awareness and funds for the Alzheimer's Association after his grandfather passed away from Alzheimer's disease.
Russian Art Sales At Christie's Yield Over $19 Million
NEW YORK, April 19 (RIA Novosti) - The sale of Russian art objects at Christie's Wednesday yielded a total of $19.2 million, a spokesperson for the auction house said Thursday. Kate Swan described the auction of Russian paintings and works of art as very successful and said Vasily Vereshchagin's "Solomon's Wall," a painting of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, was the top seller. Painted in 1885 in Paris and estimated at between $3 million and $5 million, the picture went for $3.6 million to an unnamed Russian collector. The painting was first acquired by a wealthy American businessman and senator, George Hearst. The second most expensive lot was a Faberge dwarf statue, which went for $1.4 million to an anonymous collector. "Grand Canyon, Arizona" (1921) by Nikolai Roerich, most famous for his depictions of the Himalaya Mountains, was estimated at about $400,000 and was also bought by a Russian, as was his "Sanctuaries and Citadels" (1925), depicting a Buddhist monastery in northern India, for about the same price.
Rare-plant auction boosts UBC garden
Where would the University of B.C. Botanical Garden be without its hard-working Friends of the Garden group, better known as the FOGs? Every year this group of volunteers raises more than $60,000 for the garden. They organize the hugely popular perennial plant sale on Mother's Day every year in May. They are responsible for the equally popular Apple Festival in October. Both events bring in mega-bucks for the botanical garden. .
DIB denies report it is bidding for Egypt bank
Dubai: Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) yesterday denied press reports that it is one of three financial institutions bidding for Egypt's National Development Bank. Citing unnamed Egyptian banking sources, Arabic daily newspaper Al Bayan reported that DIB - along with a UAE-Gulf consortium and Saudi National Commercial Bank - had submitted a bid. However, in a statement issued yesterday, DIB said the story was incorrect, without adding further information. "Dubai Islamic Bank wishes to clarify that an article published today regarding a DIB acquisition in National Development Bank of Egypt (NBD) is incorrect," according to the statement. "The news is totally untrue," said a Dubai Islamic Bank official, who asked not to be named. He said the bank was in no way involved in any such deal.
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