Auctions

The associations representing notaries in Athens, Piraeus and the islands of the Aegean and the Dodecanese on Monday announced they will not be conducting any property auctions until December 31.

Prince's guitar was sold for $ 700,000 at auction at Julien's Auctions, AP reported. The price is record-breaking for the musician's guitar, the auction house said.

There was a real war between the bidders for the blue-green guitar. Thus, the price was much higher than the preliminary estimate from $ 60,000 to $ 80,000.

The Athens-Piraeus Notary Association has shed light on asset auctions canceled on Wednesday following protest action by various groups.

The cancellations concerned four scheduled auctions of assets belonging to corporations or individuals with very large debts that are hiding behind so-called collectives and escaping the consequences.

Foreclosures, which have been practically frozen for the last eight years, represent the credit system's Achilles' heel. The impact from the paralysis of the auction system is already obvious in banks' financial results on the reduction of nonperforming loans and threatens to undermine the target set for containing nonperforming exposures (NPEs).

The government is considering the introduction of a regulation that will force notaries to register on the new online auctions system, in a bid to tackle their refusal to participate in the process.

Out of service is the electronic auction site with the Anonymous hacker team claiming responsibility yesterday with a statement posted on facebook.

The Electronic Auction System was down until at least 11 am on Sunday.

Lawyers who represented Turkey in the Kilia idol case in the New York District Court will make a presentation on Sept. 25 about the return of the idol, which has been smuggled from Kulaksızlar in the western province of Manisa's Akhisar district and found a buyer for $14.5 million in a recent auction, to Turkey. 

The Kilia Idol, a 23-centimeter statuette that has been smuggled from Turkey, was sold at an auction in New York. According to a court order, the idol will not be returned to Turkey since the ministry was too late in taking action

With the first online property auctions at least three months away, more than 200 auctions are scheduled to take place on Wednesday in the conventional way, in the physical presence of notaries.

According to official data, there will be 215 auctions on Wednesday out of the 3,745 already planned, some of which will take place through the new system when it finally starts operating.

Professionals in the property sector are warning that the auctioning of tens of thousands of buildings in the next few years could evolve into an unknown - probably negative - factor regarding the course of prices in the market.