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Expo auction: Your chance to take a piece of the Shanghai Expo home with you
If Expo passports and coffee mugs don't quite do it for you, visitors will get a chance next month to bid for motorboats, windsurfers and other cool props used at the Expo's opening ceremony
One of these boats could be yours next month if you want to try your luck at the Expo auction.Anyone can get their Expo passport stamped, but for true 2010 Expo bragging rights, you’re going to have to work a little harder and hit the auction circuit. A number of the props from the Shanghai 2010 Expo opening ceremony are going up for public auction next month, and we’re guessing the bidding’s going to get fierce.
Shanghai International Commodity Auction Company has posted the news of this action. The first batch of 2010 Expo props including 37 motorboats, 231 sailboats, windsurfing boards and about 1,800 costumes will be auctioned next month, but the exact date has yet to be fixed.
In case you missed the theme, and in an apparent attempt to increase the value of the auction, words like “2010 Shanghai Expo” and “Special Ships Served in Expo” will be painted on all the items.
Although it’s difficult to predict how much will be raised for the city by the auction, Fan Yuping, the vice president of Shanghai International Auction Company assures journalists that: “People from all places including foreigners can participate in the auction. There’ll be no setting of high thresholds,” meaning if you have the cash, you have a seat at this Expo party.
Fan continues to Xinhua, the government news agency, with some (relatively) hard numbers: “The motorboats, for example, were priced at RMB 300,000 each when they left the factory. Although they are now second-hand after being used for the opening ceremony, the Expo itself has added much commemorative value to them.”
After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, one of the traditional Chinese percussion instruments used during the opening ceremony was valued at RMB13,000, but all 10 were sold for RMB 706,000, according to Xinhua.
An article in Dongfang.cn offers a few suggestions for post-Expo auction celebrations: “The motorboats could be used for sports, such as diving, sea-fishing and water skiing, they could also act as work boats. The sailboats could serve as not only collector items but also vehicles for water sports and fitness.”
If you’re interested in checking out the goods, go to 78 Tangqiaoxin Lu (塘桥新路78号) to see the items on display.
