Art auctions aim to raise money for charity

A NEW kind of art auction is aiming to raise money for charity while giving artists an opportunity to display their work.

The first was held at the weekend at the municipal library in Limassol. Half of all the money raised was for the Theotokos Foundation for the children with special needs.
Roxanne Coudounaris, member of the Co-ordinating Committee of the Green Party opened the auction and the whole event was put together by Emma Dale.

Potential buyers had the opportunity to bid on reserve prices, as set by the artists, and 50 per cent of the profits went to Theotokos. For this reason, Dale issued tickets for the auction that sold for £5 to increase the amount going to the foundation.

Dale runs an internet gallery, www.daels.com, that hosts artists from all over the world. She said she had decided to base the company in Cyprus because “Cyprus has the largest number of living artists in the world at the moment”. But since the internet is not a very good sales platform, she said, they decided to go more proactive for financial success for the artists and for the business.

Many artists feel the need to give something back to the community, Dale said, because they had been given a gift. Therefore, “we decided to affiliate ourselves with a charity,” Dale said, “and we’re going to use a different charity for every auction.”
In addition to the money that has been raised for Theotokos, Dale and the company are donating a wheelchair to the foundation.

The exhibition included works from a long list of names, local and foreign, and a variety of mediums, which show diversity and unity. “People seem to come together in an art exhibition, it doesn’t make any difference where you’re from,” Dale said.
The next auction will be held in February at the Hawaii Beach hotel and will be affiliated with Friends for Life.

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