auction

Henk Laarmans experienced every bargain hunter's dream come true. He bought a painting for 75 euros at a thrift store, and then sold it for over 30 thousand euros on auction on Monday. The painting in question is 'A sunny day in the dunes' by Johan Aarts, RTL Nieuws reports.

After buying the pointillist painting at a thrift store, Laarmans took it to an art expert at Tussen Kunst and Kitsch, who told him he had something valuable in his possession.

About a century after her execution by firing squad in 1917, some of Dutch spy Mata Hari's possessions went up for auction at Amsterdam auction house De Zwaan. The auction included photos, objects, furniture and toys that belonged to her two children. All in all it raised 45 thousand euros on Monday, NOS reports.

A handwritten poem by Anne Frank was sold at auction on Wednesday for 140 thousand euros. It is not known who bought it, AT5 reports.

Auction house Bubb Kuyper in Haarlem valued the poem between 30 thosuand and 50 thousand euros. Such a handwritten document by the young Jewish girl very rarely ends up on the market.

The poem is from a poetry album by Christiane van Maarssen, a friend of Anne. The poem is dated 28 March 1942 and addressed to "Dear Cri-Cri", a nickname for Cristiane. 

The Public Prosecutor was too hasty in auctioning off a motorcycle seized from motorcycle gang Bandidos. A court ruled that the motorcycle must be returned, but the bike was already sold for 11.500 euros. Now the Prosecutor may have to pay compensation

A Zoetermeer family almost lost their cat in an auction. The family's possessions are being auctioned off on Wednesday because they did not pay their debts and the cat was listed as one of their assets. The cat was removed from the auction on Tuesday afternoon for unknown reasons

The Herman Renz circus tent was sold for 80 thousand euros at an auction in Ermelo on Friday. The auction was organized by the tax authorities in an effort to recover debts from the bankrupt circus.

A very old condom sold on online auction site Catawiki for 600 euros on Sunday. The condom, which comes from the 18th or 19th century and is made of sheep intestine, sold for more than double than what was expected and is now the most expensive condom in the world

The start of the herring season is postponed until June 18, the Dutch Fish Marketing Bureau, known locally as the Nederlands Visbureau, announced earlier on Monday. The Dutch wholesale industry made the decision because the first catch of herring is not of a high enough quality to be processed into the Dutch delicacy.

A rare ceremonial coin has been donated to Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and is visible to the public from April 22nd onwards, Dutch Central Bank (DNB) reports. The coin was initially bought with the support of the Rembrandt Association at Sotheby's auction for Koninklijk Penningkabinet in Leiden, from where it was transferred to Money Museum (GeldMuseum) and is now part of the National Numismatic Collection managed by DNB.

The Rijksmuseum has bought a bronze sculpture of the Dutchman Adriaen de Vries (1556 - 1626) for $28 million (more than 22.5 million euro). The sculpture is called Bacchic Figure Supporting the Globe.

A painting by Dutch Golden Age master Johannes Vermeer sold at auction 6.2 million British pounds (€7.8 million) at Christie’s auction house in London on Tuesday. “Sint Praxedis” shows Saint Praxedis, the supposedly virginal daughter of Saint Pudens, a former Roman senator, and sister of Saint Pudentiana, squeezing out a sponge saturated with the blood of a martyr into a chalice.