bidding bonkers

By Catherine Jones on Sep 11, 08 08:57 AM

I'm still reeling from the Superlambanana auction on Tuesday night.
Even after having a day off to recover for that and the weekend of spider-related mayhem!
Credit crunch? Not in St George's Hall that's for sure, and thank goodness for that.
Andrew the Sutton Kersh auctioneer was confident they'd have "100% sale" but I wondered how even the deep pockets of the high rollers could sustain the spending over 68 lots.
Actually 69 if you include the late entry donated by Kenny Dalglish.

But as the bids kept on coming, and kept on getting larger, I needn't have worried.
There was a frenzied 20-minute passage in the middle of what turned out to be a very, very long evening where the room just went crazy and the bids went stratospheric.
At the centre of it all was the quiet, unassuming figure of Mr P Redmond who had said earlier he may bid for a couple and joked he was hoping the rest of the bidders had run out of steam so he could pick them up for a reasonable amount.
Then the next thing we knew, the room was on its feet cheering and applauding and he'd just spent £25,000 on Mandy Mandala.
Mandy's artist was sitting next to me and was completely stunned.
The statue will go to National Museums Liverpool to keep for posterity, presumably in the new Museum of Liverpool when it opens.
Mr Redmond will be taking a couple more home.
I had suggested that if was buying one for the museum, I'd quite like Peel banana myself. And Phil did buy it - but it will be heading for his garden. I suppose it would look a bit silly in my back yard.
Craig Phillips told me he'll be keeping Homer (the banana with the builder's bum) in his front room for the moment.
A bit different to a 60" flatscreen TV I suppose....
And today it's been revealed another (anonymous) bidder plans to give the Lord Mayor an extra £100,000 for his charities after having a great evening out.
Go Superlambananas!