Art auction for a different kind of cause

February 18, 2012: This afternoon I went to the Press Club of Kolkata to attend the inauguration of the charity art auction press conference on “Art Auction for Animal Shelter”.

Animal lovers in the city could soon have a shelter to take their injured, abandoned and distressed four-legged friends to, thanks to an online art auction.

Debasree Roy Foundation, an animal welfare organisation, and The Eye Within, a non-profit organisation promoting contemporary Indian art and artists, have joined hands to conduct the auction that will raise funds for an animal shelter and hospital and Mr Gautam Das heads The Eye Within.

Works by Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, Jogen Chowdhury and Shuvaprasanna, among others, will go under the hammer for the cause.

Those who want to take part in the auction will have to fill in an online pre-registration form. Minimum bids would be announced on February 25. The auction preview will be held on March 3 at the Royal Bengal Room, City Centre, Salt Lake, from 4 pm to 7 pm. Derek O’Brien has agreed to conduct the auction and Sourav Ganguly will also join in the function on that day.

“We are dependent on animals. So we must protect them, not out of pity, but because our eco-system would collapse without them,” is what I said at the conference. Our Foundation – Prabha Khaitan Foundation is supporting this auction.

From the Press Club, Debasree and myself went to The Kolkata Tattoo – a show at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium organized by the Kolkata Police for the first time. I met Rashid Khan and the police officials of Kolkata Police (picture).

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