Brunei's golden auction ends

Gold-plated toilet items were among those for sale

A lavish auction aimed at helping to pay off the massive debts of the Sultan of Brunei's brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, has come to an end.

Among the 10,000 items up for sale were thousands of tonnes of Italian marble and gold-plated toilet roll holders.

Jefri Bolkiah has distanced himself from the auction

Unofficial estimates put the total raised during the six-day auction in Brunei at more than $7m.

Marble slabs and Italian machinery from a factory owned by Prince Jefri's company, Amedeo Development Corporation, produced a windfall of over $4m on the auction's final day.

Other assets, including two unused fire engines and a flight simulator for an attack helicopter, are to be sold later.

Prince Jefri was forced into bankruptcy after he was accused of squandering billions of dollars of state money to fund his lavish lifestyle.

But he has distanced himself from the auction, saying it was carried out without any consultation with him.

Good response

Thousands of bidders turned up to the auction, many from neighbouring Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Bidders came from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore

"It's been great," a director of the liquidators, Allan Widdows, told The Associated Press. "It has exceeded expectations, as far as the number of bidders who showed up is concerned, and we are very pleased."

But it still failed to make as much as money as expected and barely dented Amedeo's debts.

Amedeo collapsed after it came to light that its extravagant director was draining the country's foreign currency reserves with his opulent lifestyle.

The prince settled a civil action brought against him by his brother, the Sultan of Brunei, after agreeing to hand back assets he had acquired during his time as finance minister.

He also faces a multi-million dollar civil court action by creditors, but he fled Brunei before court officials could serve summonses on him.

Rich catalogue

Items up for sale at the auction included:

• 8,500 slabs of Italian marble.

  
  

  One of two fire engines
  

• Two hundred lamp posts.

• Aircraft and formula one racing simulators.

• Hundreds of gold plated toilet brush holders.
• A stainless steel two-door pizza oven.

• Thousands of items of crockery and utensils, many made by the British luxury goods firm Asprey.

• A Jacuzzi in "white, with gold plated fittings".