Hungry for art, $200,000 fell easily out of the pockets of local residents who quickly grabbed up artwork from some of the most noted painters at an auction on Saturday evening.

The auction, held as a fundraiser for the Coalition for the Protection of Children netted $210,000 in under two hours, according to head of the Coalition, Sheelagh Cooper.

"It was fabulous,'' she said. "Twenty-three of the twenty-six pieces were sold in less than two hours.'' The Marc Chagall commanded the highest price and was picked up for $35,000, while the least expensive piece, a small Renoir lithograph, Sur La Plage, went for $2,400.

"The people that were there were very keen,'' said Ms Cooper. "But the really good thing is that every single piece, except a very few, went for much less than the market rate. It was a win-win situation for everyone. There's no way anyone could have gotten those prices at a gallery.'' But while the gross receipt was $210,000 the Coalition will only walk away with about half that amount.

"We made between $50,000 and $100,00,'' said Ms Cooper. "We don't know exactly how much yet but it was very successful.'' Ms Cooper estimated that between 70 and 100 people attended Saturday's affair at the Bacardi International building. As a means of both crowd control and additional fundraising, participants had to pay an entrance fee of $150.

For those who missed the auction all is not lost as 15 pieces were held aside and will go on sale this week. Organisers felt that anymore than the 26 pieces chosen for auction would have made the event cumbersome and so held back the 15 which will now become available.