Artistic cows raise fortune at charity sale

A HERD of fabulously decorated life-size plastic cows which brightened Edinburgh's streets for more than two months raised over £250,000 at a glittering charity auction last night.

The 60 cows that formed part of the city's first CowParade came under the hammer at a "livestock" auction at Prestonfield hotel attended by a host of celebrity guests.

Vladimir Romanov, owner of Hearts football club, bought the highest-selling cow - Salty the Saltire - for £15,000, the highest price paid in a UK CowParade.

Mr Romanov who intends presenting Salty to George Reid, presiding officer at the Scottish Parliament, said: "The parliament is very busy and maybe this will help them forget about their daily problems."

Mr Romanov also bought the aptly named Coween of Hearts for the princely sum of £10,000.

Crime-writer Ian Rankin bought two cows, Lu-Moo-Nescence, who lights up, and Cow of the Castle, who bears the image of a nightscape of Edinburgh.

Mr Rankin said: "The CowParade was a unique event and the people loved it. I got two cows for our house; one for the front garden and one for the back."

Lesley Hinds, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, said: "The people of Edinburgh took the cows and their causes to heart throughout its run, and demonstrated that again last night with their generous bids at the Cow Auction. I am deeply heartened by the amount of money raised for Vetaid and my own charity, OneCity Trust."

Some of the cows were designed by celebrities such as KT Tunstall who named hers I herd she's a real cow, which was decorated with the design of her debut album, and property make-over presenters Justin and Colin. Others were the work of schoolchildren, office workers and community projects.

While two-thirds of the 94 cows to take part in the parade were auctioned off, some are being returned to local communities who designed them and others used in forthcoming CowParades.

A total of 75 per cent of the £252,000 raised will go to the charities Vetaid which supports farming projects in Africa and OneCity Trust which works with social-exclusion projects.

More than 3,000 cows, decorated by around 5,000 artists, have been a major draw for tourists in cities such New York, Prague, Barcelona and Sydney since the first CowParade in Zurich in 1998.

Collectors of the full-size cows include JK Rowling, Nelson Mandela, Lord Heseltine, Melvin Bragg, Elton John, Ringo Starr and the Queen of Jordan. So far the highest selling cow at auction was Waga Moo Moo (sponsored by noodle restaurant chain Waga Mama) from CowParade Dublin 2003; she was designed by John Rocha and covered in 14,941 Waterford crystals with the successful bid being £85,000.

Taken from the Scotsman