When Nicole Kidman forgot her bathing suit in Sweden, I bet she never imagined the new owner would auction it off to buy cows.
"The swimsuit went to the highest bidder for 16,200 kronor (2,500
dollars, 1,720 euros). That's enough to buy nine cows," the suit's
previous owner Zlatko Nedanovski, 32, told AFP.
Nedanovski has had the suit displayed in his second-hand store for five years, and finally decided to sell it off to put it to good use.
Yahoo reports:
Nedanovski said he hoped to raise enough to buy five cows, or around
9,000 kronor, as part of a project run by the Swedish aid organisation
Erikshjaelpen.
"This went amazingly well," he said,
acknowledging however that he would miss the suit, which has been on
display in a second-hand store in the southern Swedish town of Esloev
for the past five years.
"I felt it was time the bathing suit was used to help others, but it will feel a bit empty without it," he said.
Kidman,
a keen swimmer, forgot the suit at a pool she had reserved for her
personal use in the southwestern town of Vaenersborg during a 2002 stay
in Sweden to shoot Lars von Trier's "Dogville".
Pool staff found it and handed it over to a local radio station.
Nedanovski then bought the swimsuit for 5,500 kronor.
Bids
for the swimsuit had come from all over the world, Nedanovski said, but
it finally went to 49-year-old Bengt Olsen from Sweden's film town
Trollheattan, just south of Vaenersborg.
"I think it's wonderful that the suit has been returned to Sweden's film capital," Olsen told AFP.
"And
I hope the bathing suit will raise more money for more cows for more
poor Indian families," he said, explaining that he planned to charge a
small fee to allow people to view the suit and use the proceeds to buy
more cows.
"I've also decided to give one cow each year to an
Indian family, and I want to encourage everyone else to do the same,"
he said.
