Following Albert Petrak's posting yesterday, there is no mystery
about the prices realised at auction and Laurence Fisher must be
being mis-quoted.  An auction is a public event and all prices
realised at that auction are therefore in the public domain.  The
names of the buyers are, however, confidential.  In our close-knit
hobby it is usually possible to discover the buyer's name.  For
Christies you simply have to 'phone their results service.

The prices realised are as follows.  These are the hammer prices
to which you must add the buyer's premium of 20% and Value Added Tax
[VAT] of 17.5% to be paid on the premium.  This adds 23.5% to the
hammer price.

  Roll Library: GBP 48,000
  Robot: GBP 5,000
  Steinway Duo-Art electric grand: GBP 40,000
  Weber PEDA grand: GBP 1,900
  Chinese lacquered roll cabinet: GBP 1,500

Assuming that our Russian friend only bought the two items, his total
bill was GBP 108,680.

Let's all now return to the real world.

Nicholas Simons, GB