New Zealander Sells Paintings In TV Auction

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29232, 16 June 1960, Page 18

New Zealander Sells Paintings In TV Auction

A Christchurch artist, Mr J. Checkley, now living in San Francisco, appeared on an "American television programme over station KQED San Francisco, and sold nine paintings in a novel “TV auction.’’ An “educational station,” which normally beams programmes to 110,000 students in 67 California school districts, KQED does not derive revenue from commercial sponsors. Instead it holds a yearly auction at which local manufacturers, merchants and individuals give several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of goods, to help to defray the station’s operating expenses. An additional inducement is a free advertising “plug,” if desired. All gifts are tax-deductible. For three days “volunteer” auctioneers sell the accumulated merchandise in front of the cameras and viewers bid by telephone from their home. These bids are received by a battery of

telephone operators, and are written in chalk on big blackboards placed in front of the cameras. After three or four times around, the highest bids win and merchandise is collected from the station. Mr Checkley, who has his own gallery, gave six paintings of popular San Francisco scenes which were sold to viewers for about 100 dollars each. He also painted three others—which were ordered by telephone—in front of the cameras, so buyers could see how their paintings were progressing. The station, which is celebrating its sixth anniversary, is run by the Bay Area Television Association.

Heat Wave Kills 29.— At least 29 persons are reported dead in an intense heat wave sweeping across the parched plains of north-west India.—New Delhi, June 13 ((Reuter).