TOKYO: Tokyo’s annual New Year tuna auction ended Tuesday without the usual jaw-dropping bidding war, with the country’s “Tuna King” holding back on gunning for the top fish, citing the pandemic woes affecting the restaurant industry.
The most expensive fish of the day — a 208-kilogram (459-pound) bluefin caught off the northern Aomori region of Japan, known for its quality tuna — was bought by another bidder for $202,000.
That is just a fraction of the millions of dollars that sushi businessman and self-proclaimed “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura has shelled out in recent years to secure the bragging rights that come with buying the auction’s top tuna.
Last year, Kimura paid $1.8 million for a 276-kilogram (608-pound) bluefin, and in 2019 he paid a record $3.1 million for a 278-kilogram (613-pound) fish.
But Kimura said he wanted to show restraint this year as the raging pandemic has caused so much suffering to restaurants and other businesses.
“I didn’t go for the highest bid this year because this is the time for self-control,” Kimura told journalists who gathered to see him after the pre-dawn auction at the Toyosu fish market.
“I didn’t think it was appropriate to go all festive this time,” he said.
Kimura usually uses his purchases to secure national news coverage for himself and his successful sushi chain.
Normally, after winning the annual bidding war and taking his expensive investment back to one of his restaurants, he fillets the fish with a sword-like blade, creates sushi out of it and serves it to customers at no extra charge, all in front of an army of television cameras.
The most expensive tuna this year was acquired jointly by a famous wholesaler named Yukitaka Yamaguchi, a frequent guest on television shows who supplies top sushi restaurants, and a major food business, according to local media.
For this year’s auction, fish wholesalers wore masks and sanitized their hands as they examined the texture of tail meat from fresh and frozen tuna by touching, smelling and sometimes tasting pieces of it.
Spectators were not allowed to attend the event, now held at a market called Toyosu after the city’s world-famous fish market relocated there from its old site, Tsukiji, in 2018.
Coronavirus pandemic overshadows Japan’s New Year tuna auction
https://arab.news/rauna
Coronavirus pandemic overshadows Japan’s New Year tuna auction
- The most expensive fish of the day was bought for $202,000
- Spectators were not allowed to attend the event, now held at a market called Toyosu
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
