Auctions

Guennol Stargazer, a 5,000-year-old Anatolian marble female figure that was smuggled from Turkey, was sold for $14,5 million at a New York auction on April 28. 

The sale was protested by Turks who gathered outside the auction house. 

Greece sold 813 million euros ($863.49 million) of three-month T-bills to refinance a maturing issue, the country's debt agency PDMA said on Wednesday.

The three-month paper was sold at a yield of 2.70 percent, unchanged from a previous sale last month. The amount raised included 187.5 million euros in non-competitive bids.

Greece will this week ask for improved financial bids from shortlisted investors seeking to buy a majority stake in its second-largest port, two officials said on Tuesday.

The austerity measures introduced by the government are forcing thousands of taxpayers to hand over inherited property to the state as they are unable to cover the taxation it would entail. The number of state properties grew further last year due to thousands of confiscations that reached a new high.

The Justice Ministry is preparing a system to auction properties through an online platform with open bids, set to start from September. The aim is to sidestep the obstacles created by the various groups that have been preventing the implementation of auctions in their conventional form at courthouses around the country.

The central coordinating committee of Greece's unions of notaries on Tuesday called on its members to abstain from Wednesday's weekly auctions of foreclosed properties.

This week's ban on auctions of primary residences belonging to individuals with debts to the state comes in the wake of dozens of similar actions protesting the scheme that have delayed sell-offs.

The Independent Authority for Public Revenue last year confiscated bank deposits of state debtors totaling 124 million euros, according to data that Deputy Finance Minister Katerina Papanatsiou presented in Parliament on Monday.

The coordinating committing of the Greek union of notaries on Tuesday announced its members would not be taking part in home auctions initiated by the Greek state, banks, pension funds and municipalities on Wednesday.

However, certain auctions could go ahead if permission was applied for by notaries, including those aimed at collecting unpaid wages or alimony, for instance.

The coordinating committee of Greece's union of notaries said its members would not be attending home auctions initiated by banks, the Greek state, pension funds and municipalities on Wednesday.

More than 40 million passengers use the Sydney International Airport every year. Many of them leave objects behind that are collected by the airport staff. The management decided to put the lost property to use and held an auction to sell off the items, the proceeds of which will go to a charitable cause.