Court cancels gallery confiscation

YOGYAKARTA: The court canceled its plan yesterday to confiscate an art gallery belonging to well-known artist Sapto Hudoyo, whose wife used it as collateral until she paid off a debt.

Noor Cholifah had filed a lawsuit against artist Yani Sapto Hudoyo, the wife of the artist who owns the Sapto Hudoyo Art Gallery on Jl. Solo, for failing to pay her debt on time.

In October 1993, Yani borrowed Rp 750 million from Noor, putting up the gallery as collateral.

The Sleman District Court originally ordered Yani to evacuate the gallery by Sept. 4 after she failed to pay her debt in due time. Yani pleaded for a grace period until Sept. 19.

Yani's lawyers, Achiel Suyanto and Tumbu Saraswati, told the court that since October 1993, Yani had been paying the monthly interest, which amounted to Rp 333 million.

"I have paid my debt," Yani told a crowd of 20 local journalists waiting outside the gallery in the expectation it would be evacuated today.

Noor told The Jakarta Post yesterday that Yani had paid her debt, which had reached Rp 1.3 billion from interest. (30/14)