ELEPHANT PARADE IN LUXEMBURG TRIER RAISES MORE THAN 500,000 EUROS FOR THE ASIAN ELEPHANT FOUNDATION

Trier at nightfall, the small figure of a grey baby elephant welcomed guests down a red carpet, lit by movie cameras into a converted warehouse for the gala auction of the Trier Elephant Parade.

More than 200 guests from Trier, including the city’s top businesses, as well as international artists and Elephant Parade fans from across Europe had come together to celebrate another successful Elephant Parade exposition that had raised conservation awareness among hundreds of thousands of consumers through engaging, fun and cutting edge art.

The dinner and gala auction was run by charity The Asian Elephant Foundation, with proceeds from the fundraising event helping the Foundation to the continue the fight to save the Asian elephant, whose future is, sadly, still uncertain.

The Trier auction completed the four-month Elephant Parade exposition jointly hosted by the cities of Luxemburg and Trier. The Luxemburg event ended last week with more than 305,000 Euros raised. Last night the total figure raised from this two-city exposition rose to 500,000 Euros, making it the most successful elephant parade fundraiser since 2010.

Some of the auction prices achieved for Trier elephants comprised:

·  Amazing Lotus by Narin Khanthawong (€13,000)

·  Prince of Trumpets by Carlo Malane (€13,000)

·  Romanian by Wanchalueam Muenpang (€12,000)

·  Turbofant by Andrea Kneip (€11,000)

·  Atzefant by Atze Schroder (€11,000)

·  Golden Elephant by Mirkes, Denter & Burgard (€10,000)

Joris Linders, Elephant Parade Managing Director, opened the evening by thanking artists for their great designs and talking about Elephant Parade’s work. He commented: “The atmosphere was buzzing last night from the moment everyone took their seats. The Trier elephants looked spectacular around the room, each awaiting news on a new home. The auction results were a perfect way to close this exposition and the vibrancy and energy of the art was matched by people’s reaction to it - from children on the streets of Trier during the exposition to the auction bidders at last night’s event. This year has been a year of many firsts for Elephant Parade – our first visits to Luxemburg and Trier, our west coast debut in the US, taking Elephant Parade to new continent, and our first ever 14-stop national tour which is currently live in the UK.”

The next Elephant Parade auction will be on 17 November as Elephant Parade’s first US exposition in Dana Point Southern California reaches its finale. There will be pre-auction viewing days for the Dana Point elephants between 10-16 November. Elsewhere, in the UK, all the Elephant Parade elephants featuring in the 14-stop UK national tour will be available to buy pre-auction from Tuesday 29 October (www.intuelephantparade.co.uk), the artist creations each at a fixed price of £7,500. The UK tour presented by intu, currently at Newcastle, will move to Cardiff in late November for Elephant Parade’s first ever visit to Wales.