| AIDS Services hosts annual charity auction
ArtErotica, an annual charity auction and dance party for AIDS Services of Austin, is back on track with a new date and venue after plans to hold the event last month were derailed by a fire code conflict. The festive fundraiser will take place Saturday night from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. at the Tillery Street Theater.
"We're ready to rock 'n' roll," said Tim Young, co-chair of the organization's fundraising arm The Octopus Club.
The event will feature more than 200 pieces of erotic art donated from both local and out-of-state artists. Complimentary drinks and erotic deserts will be provided by local food artists and businesses, including Twin Liquors and the Texas Culinary Academy. Two disc jockeys and live models sporting Ginch Gonch and Andrew Christian underwear will also be in attendance, Young said.
Greymouth Petroleum set for oil hunt
Greymouth Petroleum hopes to join the great south oil and gas hunt with a bid for exploration blocks in the Great South Basin, a huge expansion of wild ocean south and east of Invercargill. The company's managing director, Mark Dunphy, said the explorer was bidding on its own. The company was not looking at the moment for a partner. Much of Greymouth's exploration is in the Taranaki area. It operates the Turangi, Ngatoro, Kaimiro and Goldie fields. Crown Minerals closed a tender three weeks ago for 40 blocks in the Great South Basin and is expected to decide on successful bidders by July. It will not comment on who bid, although the Government has said it is pleased with international interest in the blocks. There have been no wells drilled in the basin for more than 20 years.
Long-closed Valley store faces foreclosure, auction
More than six years after the HomeBase Inc. store closed in Spokane Valley, the 100,000-square-foot building and the land it sits on is set to be disposed of in a foreclosure action. The property is scheduled to be sold at auction at 10 a.m. May 11 at the Bank of America Financial Center, at 601 W. Riverside in downtown Spokane, says David C. Neu, the trustee in the case and a Seattle-based attorney with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP. The building has had no retail tenants since Irvine, Calif.-based HomeBase closed it in 2001. Falcos Inc., of Spokane Valley, is leasing about 25,000 square feet of space in the building, where it stores stoves and parks delivery trucks for the Falcos Home Resort store, located at 9310 E. Sprague. Falcos owner Louie Falco says he has about a year left on the lease.
Tax raids on art auction houses in city
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The income tax department on Tuesday conducted raids and surveys on two prominent art auction houses—Osian's and Saffronart—and the Sakshi Art Gallery in Colaba for alleged tax violations.
Raids were also conducted at their residences and their Delhi offices. With the art market witnessing an unprecedented price boom, trading in art has come under the scrutiny of the taxman.
The growth in the market has not only seen the rise of auction houses, but also the setting up of art funds such as those started by Osian's and Sakshi (Yatra Art Fund).
Art funds operate on the principle of mutual funds except that investors' money is used to buy art, not shares.
In this year's budget, the government has also decided to tighten the tax norms by proposing to levy tax on the gains made through sale of art work.
|
