BARGAIN PRICES.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10738, 8 November 1928, Page 7

BARGAIN PRICES.

RUSSIAN ART TREASURES AT , ■ AUCTION RAREST ARTICLES BRING HALF VALUE GERMANS PURCHASE; NEARLY ALL FURNITURE COURT ORDERS' WITHDRAWAL OF SOME GOODS nnltcd Presß Assn. by El. Tel. Copyright (Australian Press. Assn.) - BERLIN; Nov. \6. In the presence or 1500 people, including .Europe’s loveliest women, the Russian art treasures were sold at • bargain prices at _ Leake’s salerooms, purchasers evidently, fearing having to account at the courts of their. own countries for possessing, confiscated articles* _ Germans' bought nearly all the furniture because it can be retained in German possession unhindered. French, British and Americans .purchased little. The receipts totalled £7OOO below the . estimate, after . two hours’ selling, the rarest articles bringing half ’their value. Soviet attaches watched from the galleries, .depressed at the failure to realise their hopes of profit. An English, deater , paid £3OOO for a settee and ten armchairs made for Eugene de. Beauharnais. A. Berlin collector bought • a writing desk by David Rontaur, and a Paris dealer paid £3OOO for a cupboard by Joseph Baumhauer. The Supreme Court of Prussia having upset the Berlin court =| deci-sion-that the sale could not he prohibited, a test case was brought by Prince'Stormanitz for an injunction against the sale of certain articles which the prince claims the Soviet illegally confiscated with his property, and the court ordered the withdrawal of the goods pending a further decision.