DATELINE: 3rd September 2001

AUCTION FAILURE
A European auction of Chinese porcelain, dating from the 15th to 19th centuries, went horribly wrong, it has been revealed.
Auctioned at Nagel in Stuttgart last November, a reported 350,000 pieces in some 17,000 lots were expected to raise a minimum of £15 million and possibly as much as £36 million.
In the event the pieces, from the wreck of the Tek Sing in Indonesia's Gelasa Straits, reportedly raised just £6 million - £1 million less than costs accrued by the project that raised the porcelain.
It is reported that more than half of the porcelain had to be withdrawn when it did not reach its minimum asking rates.
The figures came to light recently in an Australian newspaper, which reported how the Australian Securities and Investment Commission had, since 1999, taken "at least four successful actions" against the Tek Sing's salvor, Ocean Salvage, in relation to "misleading and deceptive" sales of shares to investors in its marine projects.

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