auction
Strings of Autumn Festival Benefit Auction a Success
The sum of Kc 325,000 were the end-of-the-day proceeds from yesterday´s auction of art photographs for the benefit of Prague´s Jan Deyl Conservatory for the Blind. The auction was launched by the organizers of the Strings of Autumn Festival, with support from the KKCG finance and investment group, Dorotheum auction house, and Galerie Louvre of Prague. Auctioned off at the sale was a special edition off twelve signed photographs portraying some of the Festival´s most prestigious artists and projects (including among others Magdalena Ko¾ená, Michael Nyman, Ute Lemper, and Iva Bittová). All of the picturess were made by the Festival´s resident photographer, Petra Hajská. The proceeds from the auction will be used in funding a system of orientation on the premises of the Jan Deyl Conservatory and Secondary School for the Blind.
Thrill in the hall reached its peak during the auctioning of a photograph of Iva Bittová from last year´s international project entitled Don Juan in Prague, whose price soared from the initial 12,000.- KC to an unexpectedly high 90,000.- KC final. Formidable battles were likewise waged by bidders for a photograph of Ute Lemper, the artist who inaugurated last year´s Strings of Autumn; and for a visually fascinating shot from a 2005 production of Benjamin Britten´s opera, Sumida River. The auction as a whole was characterized by a warm and friendly atmosphere.
Europe´s only school of its kind, the Jan Deyl Conservatory in Prague specializes in the music schooling of talented students suffering from impaired vision. Personal histories of the school´s former students, most of whom are now music teachers, professional musicians and piano tuners, demonstrate that music is a medium thoroughly accessible to the blind and visually impaired, offering them a viable perspective of leading a purposeful life and finding a dignified position on the labour market. For more information see www.kjd.cz.
