British auction house Christie’s has canceled the sale of a Tyrannosaurus-rex skeleton worth about $15 25 million after suspicions that some of the bones were far from original.
“After consultation, Christie’s auction house decided to recall the lot. The consignor has now decided to release the specimen to the museum for all to admire,” said a representative of the auction house.
The representative Christie’s did not specify the reason for this decision, but the problem may lie in the fact that some of the bones of the skeleton named Shen are actually replicas of bones of another dinosaur. President of the Black Hills Institute for Geological Research and paleontologist Peter Larson said that some parts of Shen are remarkably similar to parts of Stan, another Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that went under the hammer at Christie’s for a record $31.8 million in 2020. Larson suggested that Shen’s owner supplemented some of the skeleton’s missing bones with casts of Stan’s bones.
“They are using Stan to sell a dinosaur that is not Stan,” Larson said.
The Black Hills Institute for Geological Research owns the intellectual property rights to Stan, despite his sale in 2020, and is selling painted polyurethane skeleton casts for $120,000.
The U.S. Museum of Natural History at the Field Museum, one of the largest museums in the United States. Field, one of the largest natural history museums in the world, said it is very difficult to find an entire dinosaur skeleton. In most cases, in the skeletons exhibited in museums, some of the bones are casts.
The first hardcover edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone could go under the hammer in the UK for £150,000 (about $160,000).
Along with the first part of the wizarding saga, the “magic wand” that actor Daniel Radcliffe, in the form of Harry Potter, used during the filming of the film of the same name, will be put up for auction. The props are expected to sell for £30,000 ($32,000).
The auction is organized by Propstore, a collection company that collects movie and TV show props. It will take place from 3 to 6 November in London and is expected to sell about 1.5 thousand lots. The total revenue could exceed 11 million pounds (nearly $12 million).
Among the most expensive items are items such as the Superman costume worn by actor Christopher Reeve during filming in 1978-1987 and the Darth Vader gloves worn by David Prowse in Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope”.
The Propstore Auction will sell props from the James Bond movies, the Marvel and DC franchises, as well as movies like The Shawshank Redemption and Gladiator.
On August 10, the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals (DGF) will hold an online auction in the Prozorro.Sale system for the sale of debt to Prominvestbank, which is subject to liquidation, under a loan agreement with the Terra-Food dairy processing company.
The starting price of assets is set at UAH 329.3 million and corresponds to the total debt of the financial institution under the loan agreement, according to the DGF website.
“Provided under the agreement – industrial real estate (property complexes for milk processing) with a total area of 52.2 thousand square meters with land plots with a total area of more than 9.5 hectares, equipment and vehicles in the Kyiv, Poltava, Vinnitsa and Nikolaev regions. Also residential real estate with land plots with a total area of about 1.4 thousand square meters and 0.4 hectares, respectively, in the Vasilkovsky district of the Kyiv region,” the Fund said in a statement.
In addition, the pledge under the agreement includes Terra-Food goods in circulation and shares in the charter capital of four companies.
Bidding will take place according to the Dutch model of the auction to reduce the price. Both legal entities and individuals can participate in the auction, except for borrowers and guarantors for loans, citizens of the Russian Federation or persons associated with the aggressor state.
As reported, the National Bank of Ukraine on February 25 revoked a banking license and liquidated banks under the control of the Russian Federation: JSC International Reserve Bank (formerly JSC Sberbank) and Joint Stock Commercial Industrial Investment Bank (PJSC Prominvestbank), which is 99.77% owned by PJSC Sberbank of Russia and the State Development Corporation VEB.RF.
GC “Terra Food” develops business in three sectors – dairy, meat and agriculture. It is one of the five largest producers of dairy products in the country.
The production capacity of 10 milk processing enterprises of the holding is 31 thousand tons of cheese, 78 thousand tons of butter and vegetable butter, as well as 61 thousand tons of whole milk products per year.
More than 100 types of meat products of the group are produced at the Tulchinsk Meat Processing Plant with a capacity of more than 6 thousand tons of products per year.
The average price of access to the interstate cross-section for the export of 100 MW of electricity to Romania as of June 30 at UAH 4,200/MWh became a record, and the auction itself for its redemption, held for the first time after the opening of exports by Europe, proves the ability of Ukraine to earn billions of hryvnias on this, Board Chairman of NPC Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytsky said.
“This is the first auction for access to the interstate cross-section after the synchronization of the Ukrainian and European energy systems, and record UAH 4,200 per MWh of access. In just one day, the state-owned company Ukrenergo earned UAH 10 million,” Kudrytsky wrote on his Facebook on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
He suggested that if the export capacity was increased to 1,000 MW and auctions were held to buy access to interstate cross-sections at the same level, the state could earn up to UAH 100 million per day, or UAH 36 billion per year. Accordingly, 2,000 MW can bring the state about UAH 72 billion a year, the head of Ukrenergo said.
“This is the price of European rules and the transparency and competitiveness of the auction procedure, as opposed to the traditional desire to ‘steer,’ which can multiply UAH 72 billion by zero. And that is why Ukrenergo will always actively profess and defend these principles – a deviation from them will cost the state very dearly,” he stressed.
As reported, on June 30, the commercial export of the first 100 MW of electricity to Europe will start after the synchronization of the Ukrainian and European energy systems, agreed by ENTSO-E on June 27. At first, the resource will be supplied to Romania, then the directions to Slovakia and Hungary will be opened, but in general, the capacity for export is still 100 MW. In a month, Ukrenergo expects an increase in exports.
On March 1, Ukraine held the first auction for the placement of government domestic loan war bonds, at which it attracted UAH 8.122 billion for the period of one year at 11% per annum. According to the Ministry of Finance, a total of 10 applications were submitted for the auction, all of them were satisfied.
In addition, another auction was held, at which UAH 20.7 million was raised at 10% per annum for 56 days.
The funds from the bonds will be used to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the uninterrupted provision of the financial needs of the state under martial law, the ministry said.
As reported, the total volume of issuance of military bonds is up to UAH 400 billion. They can be purchased by the National Bank. However, according to available information, it was not among the buyers in the first auction.
Concorde Consulting LLC, a member of the Concorde Capital group of companies, acting as an adviser on the privatization of PJSC President Hotel, has set its starting price at UAH 390 million, the company’s press service has reported.
The company said that they expect a significant increase in prices during the privatization auction due to the competition of bidders. At the same time, even a sale at the starting price will bring more benefits to the state than income in the form of annual dividends, according to Concorde Capital.
“There is no need to keep the President Hotel in state ownership. This is not a strategic facility. Today, the hotel is in a state that requires significant investments. In the near future, it can take a significant place on the hotel map of Kyiv precisely by attracting the necessary investments through privatization,” CEO of Concorde Capital Ihor Mazepa said.
According to him, the modernization of the hotel and its further operational management could create hundreds of jobs.
Thus, Concorde Capital recommends holding a competition for the privatization of the President Hotel in the near future.
Concorde Capital’s independent appraisal partners were Marcus Bureau, Creston GCG, BDO Consulting, Redcliffe Partners and Cushman&Wakefield.
Earlier, the starting price of the President Hotel at the privatization auction, according to UkraineInvest, was estimated at $12 million.
