Public auctions could promote tourism

JAKARTA (JP): Public auctions of international, high-quality collectors' items are viewed as having the potential to promote Indonesia's tourism industry.

"If an auction is held during a vacation period in certain tourism destinations, many foreigners will come to Indonesia to attend it and spend several days in the country," the director of PT Liabilitaspersada Superintenden, Andrew Poerwantoro, told The Jakarta Post during a public auction of high-quality carpets at the World Trade Center here on Saturday.

He said that by frequently holding public auctions, his company will make people accustomed to genuine collections, such as those of porcelain, paintings and other valuable things.

According to Andrew, who also runs several other businesses, his company has held 12 public auctions in Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java.

"In average, in one auction we can collect between Rp 300 million (US$140,000) and Rp 500 million. But actually it depends on timing, buyers and offered-products," he said, adding that some 50 people, foreigners and Indonesians, usually attend his company's auctions.

He also said that the most expensive products his company has sold include a Persian carpet worth Rp 35 million in an auction in Surabaya and another carpet worth Rp 22 million in Jakarta.

"My company, set up in 1992 as the first public auction company in the country, collects carpets from collectors, bankrupt wholesalers and other parties," Andrew said.

Buyers at the auctions included collectors, as well as interested public and "yuppies," he said.

At Saturday's auction, Liabilitaspersada offered 76 authentic contemporary hand-made Persian, Anatolian and Afghan carpets and other exceptional, unique and decorative rugs and runners.

Prices ranged from Rp 5 million to Rp 10 million.

Andrew said that his company charges five percent to 10 percent in commission on the total transactions from the owners of auctioned goods, while the expert auctioneer, who is usually invited from Switzerland or Hong Kong, also takes commissions or fees.

Under the Indonesian law on auctions, nine percent of the proceeds should go to the state auction office and 0.7 percent to the social services ministry. (icn)