The work of art ‘Mussels’ by the Groningen painter Henk Helmantel raised 14,500 euros for the Jarige Job Foundation at an auction in Assen tonight. The auction took place at the annual mussel party in the center, a networking event that has supported a good cause for ten years.
The Jarige Job Foundation ensures that children living in poverty can still celebrate an unforgettable birthday. They help these children by giving them a birthday box. It contains everything you need for a real birthday, at home and at school.
Henk Helmantel had made the oil on panel especially for the occasion. “I had not painted mussels before, but I arranged them in a special composition.” The Groningen painter himself hoped that the work would sell for at least 10,000 euros, he said prior to the auction. But director Harry Tupan of the Drents Museum, as an auctioneer, even managed to increase the price to 14,500 euros. The highest bidder was Asser real estate entrepreneur Henk Ploegmakers.
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