Days after the devastating earthquake in Japan, X Japan's frontman Yoshiki put up his see-through Plexiglas Kawai grand for auction to raise money for the Japan Relief Fundraising Auction.
Withing eight minutes of the auction, the bid shot from $.01 to $42,000.00; within hours, an online bidder pledged a staggering $73-million. Two days after it was put up for auction on April 17, Yahoo! Auctions temporarily suspended the auction, citing an overload of unexpected high volume of traffic on the site, high bidding prices, and the time required for bidder confirmation procedures.
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Yahoo! Auction's systems have now been restructured, new bidding
policies are in place, and Yahoo! has identified the last confirmed bid
for the piano as $512,231.70.
The auction is set to resume on Monday, April 25, and will run through Thursday, April 28.
The Japanese-born Yoshiki and his X Japan band mates decided to
postpone the March 15 release of their first U.S. single, “Jade,” so
they could focus on helping with Japan's recovery. Yoshiki,
through his Yoshiki Foundation America, is spearheading a major
celebrity auction to benefit the survivors of the earthquake and
tsunami. The Foundation has already received items from Marilyn Manson,
Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis, comic book legend Stan Lee,
Robert Pattinson, James Franco, and Reese Witherspoon.
