Olympic drum auction yields 41.4 mln yuan in Beijing

BEIJING, March 18 -- Auctioneers sold 410 of the

2,008 drums used at the opening ceremony of the Olympics for more than 41.38

million yuan (about 6.09 million U.S. dollars) in Beijing Wednesday.

China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) said this was the last group of the

1,500 drums that had been selected for auction. Also sold Wednesday were 978

"zhujian" bamboo scrolls.

CBEX said 132 institutions and individuals attended Wednesday's auction.

CBEX auctioned 1,000 drums, also known as "fou", for 52.45 million yuan on

March 8, and another 90 drums online Monday with bids totaling 12.83 million

yuan. The remaining drums will be donated to various organizations.

Fou drums are ancient instruments made from clay or bronze. Zhujian scrolls

were used instead of paper in ancient China.

More than 500,000 other Olympics-related items have also been sold for

almost 30 million yuan, including a king-size bed used by Chinese basketball

player Yao Ming, in nine other auctions to date.