In the last few weeks it became clear that the Leo Heremans auction was about to be something special. The auction was the talk of the town among many pigeon fanciers but no one would have guessed that the auction raised 4.346,500 euro (that is 174 million Belgian Francs!). We give you a chronological overview of this memorable auction. Below the article you can find a list of the most expensive pigeons in this auction.
Saturday 18 May:

12h50:  the record for most expensive pigeon auction ever (Pieter Veenstra, 1,899,000 EUR) was broken. Leo Heremans now holds the record for most expensive auction, and that is even before one single pigeon has been sold!

13h30: Bolt, the first National Ace Pigeon KBDB, is sold to the Chinese Mr. Gao for 310,000 euro. Bolt is now the most expensive pigeon ever sold! Bold takes the record from Pieter Veenstra’s Dolce Vita, which was sold for 250,400 EURO. Hans & Evert-Jan Eijerkamp unsuccessfully tried to win this auction and to take Bolt home with them to The Netherlands.

14h00: The average price per pigeon is now 4,000 euro, which results in a total value of 2,120,000 euro. Meanwile the Prins Olympiade auction (grandfather of Bolt and son of Olympiade) has closed. The highest bid is exactly 100,000 euro. Next up: the auctioning of Nieuwe Olympiade. Could this be another tight game? Pieter Veenstra and Hans & Evert-Jan Eijerkamp currently hold the highest bid of 120,000 euro. Nieuwe Olympiade will be sold in part three number one; this auction closes at 15h00.

15h00: Nieuwe Olympiade is now the third most expensive pigeon ever sold in an auction after Bolt and Dolce Vita. Where will it stop? Hans & Evert-Jan Eijerkamp and Great Wall continue to bid; the total value is now 2,300,000 euro.

15h30: The value of Nieuwe Olympiade exceeds 200,000 euro; the highest bid is now 202,000 euro.

15h40: A few weeks ago the buyer of Bolt, Mr. Gao Fuxin, was in Belgium to take a look at a few Leo Heremans pigeons. Below you can see a few pictures from his visit to Belgium.
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15h50: A picture of Bolt, the world’s most expensive pigeon that was sold for 310,000 euro.
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15h55: The auction’s total value now exceeds the 2,500,000 euro mark! In the meantime a few fanciers have been bidding on the bis pair “Parents Bolt versus Parents Sperwer”. The value of these bis pairs rose from 90,000 euro to 160,000 euro in only 20 minutes’ time. This pigeon is included in part four, number one.

16h15: The Nieuwe Olympiade auction comes to an end! This turns out to be the third most expensive pigeon in the auction with a value of 210,000 euro. Hans & Evert-Jan Eijerkamp place the winning bid and they take Nieuwe Olympiade home to The Netherlands!

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Hans en Evert Jan are really satisfied with their purchase! Hans poses with Rossi, Evert-Jan holds a daughter of Nieuwe Olympiade. These two pigeons are now paired together. The daughter of Nieuwe Olympiade was a gift from Leo for his 50th Birthday. This is a top class hen from 2011.

16h45: Nearly three hours after we exceeded the 4,000 euro mark the average price per pigeon is now 5,000 euro!

17h15: The auction with the bis pairs Parents Bolt vs. Parents Sperwer has just ended. We do not know yet which of the two pairs will be sold but we do know that this will be the most expensive breeding pair ever: 184,000 euro. This pair has been sold to Mr. Wang Chien-Sheng & Cheng Ming-Chi. They had also been in Belgium to have a closer look at the Leo Heremans pigeons.

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18h10: Fanciers continue to bid. The total value is now 2,800,000 euro!

19h00: Part seven comes to an end; these were today’s final auctions. The total collection is now worth 2,900,000 euro. We are nearing the 3,000,000 euro mark.

Sunday 19 May:
12h00: This is the second day of the Leo Heremans pigeon auction. Today’s first real top class pigeon is Gilbert, fourth National Ace Pigeon KBDB. Its current value is 71,000 euro.

13h00: Hans & Evert-Jan Eijerkamp do everything they can to win the Gilbert auction and to overbid no less than three different Chinese bidders. That explains why the price has gone up to 104,000 euro in a short period of time. Meanwhile quite a few fanciers are bidding on the second bis pair in this auction, which consists of the parents of Safier and the parents of Wolfgang Roeper’s Olympiad Pigeon. Both breeding pigeons are already six years old and yet the highest bid is now 152,000 euro.

13h45: The collection’s total value has already exceeded the 3,500,000 euro mark. Could we hit the four million mark today?

14h00: The BIS pair Safier vs Roeper has exceeded the 200,000 euro mark; three Chinese fanciers are trying to win the bid. This pair has now reached a value of 216,000 euro; this will be the third most expensive sale in a pigeon auction (albeit a breeding pair).

14h30: The Gilbert auction continues, the highest bid is now 152,000 euro.

15h00: The Gilbert auction has ended; the winning bid for the Fourth National Ace Pigeon KBDB is no less than 162,000 euro. The auction of the bis pair Safier vs. Roeper has ended as well with a winning bid of no less than 270,000 euro! Yesterday we believed that the parents of Bolt would be the most expensive breeding pair ever but that is no longer the case: Safier and his hen (the pair that was sold) are now without doubt the most expensive breeding pair!

17h30: The impossible has happened; this pigeon collection is now worth over 4,000,000 euro.

18h15: One of the last racing pigeons of today is Olympic Sperwer. This young cock was sent to the Nitra Olympiad. He is now sold to a Chinese fancier for 108,000 euro.

20h00: the auction is not over yet. ‘Power’, a top class pigeon from the final collection was worth 12,000 euro this morning; the highest bid is now 40,000 euro.

20h30: We had several bids from Romanian fanciers, like Mr. Florea Sorin (bought 19 pigeons) and Mr. Stanescu, as well. They purchased pigeons for a total value of 120,000 euros.

21h30: We have two more pigeons on offer: Power (now 51,000 euros) and Brother Bolt, a young bird (now 37,000 euro).

22h15: The Leo Heremans pigeon auction has come to an end. The brother of Bolt, a late youngster from 2012 was sold to Yong Lin from The Netherlands for 39,000 euro.

The ten most expensive pigeons in the Leo Heremans auction:
1) Bolt: 310,000 euro
2) Safier koppel: 270,000 euro
3) Nieuwe Olympiade: 210,000 euro
4) Ouders Bolt: 184,000 euro
5) Gilbert: 162,000 euro
6) Olympic Sperwer: 108,000 euro
7) Prins Olympiade: 100,000 euro
8) Dubbel Aske: 62,000 euro
9): De Power: 51,000 euro
10) Nestbroer Safier: 47,000 euro
It is remarkable that nine out of ten pigeons were sold to Chinese and Taiwanese fanciers. Nieuwe Olympiade is the only pigeon that remains in Europe, in the lofts of Hans & Evert-Jan Eijerkamp. They have purchased the most expensive pigeon that was sold in Europe.

The ten most expensive pigeons sold in an auction:
1) Bolt: 310,000 euro (Leo Heremans)
2) Safier koppel: 270,000 euro (Leo Heremans)
3) Dolce Vita: 250,400 euro (Pieter Veenstra)
4) Nieuwe Olympiade: 210,000 euro (Leo Heremans)
5) Ouders Bolt: 184,000 euro (Leo Heremans)
6) Euro Diamond: 170,000 euro (Brockamp)
7) Gilbert: 162,000 euro (Leo Heremans)
8) Blauwe Prins: 156,000 euro (Pros Roosen)
9) Eagle Eye: 132,000 euro (Erik Limbourg)
10) Monar: 126,200 euro (Etienne Meirlaen)
Every single pigeon in this list was sold in a PIPA auction.

The ten most expensive pigeon auctions ever:
1. Leo Heremans – May 2013 (internet auction) – 4,346,500 euro
2. Pieter Veenstra – January 2012 (internet auction) – 1,899,300 euro
3. Pros Roosen – January 2011 (public auction)  – 1,368,000 euro
4. Jos Thoné – December 2010 (public auction) – 1,323,780 euro
5. Andre Verbesselt – January 2012 (internet auction)– 1,292,400 euro
6. Marc de Cock – January 2013 (internet auction) – 1,273,450 euro
7. Erik Limbourg – December 2009 (internet auction)  – 1,252,000 euro
8. Etienne Meirlaen – November 2012 (internet auction) – 1,159,700 euro
9. Dr. H.P. & P. Brockamp – November 2010 (internet auction) – 1,017,750 euro
10. Verreckt-Ariën – December 2011 (internet auction) – 971,800 euro
These auctions wer all organised by PIPA