5. Passing of Kenji Schmitt comes as a shock
In early September we were informed about the passing of Kenji Schmitt, a promising pigeon fancier who was only 26 years old. It is particularly sad to see the passing of a young fancier and we saw in the comment section that many were shocked by the sudden death of Kenji. Fanciers were left in disbelief; there are no words to describe the loss.
4. For sale: the mecca of pigeon racing
In April 2013 Louis Janssen passed away (see below), the last member of the Janssen dynasty. The authentic house in Arendonk was offered for sale in November 2013 for only 255,000 euro. Fanciers came up with a lot of original ideas in the comment section: one suggested that the house was to be gifted to the KBDB, some wanted PIPA to buy it to turn it into a museum and others wanted to ask fanciers worldwide to make a donation for a joint purchase. We received many ideas but none of them have been carried out.
At the moment the house is still for sale on the website of Immo 2000. Who is the first to place a bid?
3. The passing of Louis Janssen on 16 April 2013: the end of an era
The passing of Louis Janssen this season was not a total surprise, because he was already 100 years old. His death marks the end of a myth and probably one of the most incredible success stories in the history of pigeon racing.
Our news report about the end of the Janssen pigeon family was our most read article last year with 49,000 views. The article about the passing of Louis Janssen had 29,000 views, resulting in a third place.
2. Report of the South African Million Dollar Pigeon Race
This is perhaps not a full silver medal, because this article has been updated several times, which means it appeared at the top of the homepage every time. However, it illustrates that the visitors to our PIPA website are really interested in these one loft races. The eventual winners were Tom De Kovel & Henk Jurriens from The Netherlands with their pigeon Untamed Desert (NL12-1231153).
You can find an additional report with pictures in the photo gallery below the article.
1. Leo Heremans auctions pigeon family for 4,346.500 euro
The auctioning of the entire Leo Heremans pigeon family on 18 and 19 May was the event of the season and it attracted attention from national and international media. Nearly every continent reported about the high prices being paid for these pigeons. Our report on this auction had 48,500 views, which makes it our most-read article of 2013.
The previous record revenue of the total auction of Veenstra on 29 January 2012 had already been exceeded on Saturday 18 May. Many fanciers dreamt of buying Bolt but this pigeon was eventually sold to the Chinese Mr. Gao at 13h30 (see picture below). Bolt was transferred to China and he is now the most expensive pigeon ever with a price of 310,000 euro.
This auction saw a total revenue of 2.5 million euro at 15h55 but the auction was far from over. The first auction day came to an end at about 7 o’clock in the evening, with a revenue of just below three million. Several more buyers paid high prices on Sunday 19 May and this resulted in a total revenue of 3.5 million. The auction eventually raised no less than 4 million euro by three o’clock in the afternoon.
The auction closed at 22h15 with a total revenue of 4,346.500 euro. The last pigeon that was sold was a late young bird from 2012, a brother of Bolt that was sold to Yong Lin (NL) for 39,000 euro. It was remarkable that nine out of ten of the most expensive pigeons were sold to Chinese or Taiwanese fanciers but that is perhaps not all that surprising. Nieuwe Olympiade was one of the only pigeons to stay in Europe; it was sold to Hans & Evert-Jan Eijerkamp for 210,000 euro. They currently hold the record for most expensive pigeons sold within Europe.