When the bid for “Styler Davidson Sow-tain” hit $11,000 at the Big Pig Gig live auction on Monday, “a thunderbolt hit me,” said artist Jan Brown Checco. “This is a really important artwork and it deserves to be displayed where people can enjoy it. I knew I had to bid on it, but I didn't even have a paddle. I borrowed one from a person I knew and started waving it. My husband was flabbergasted.”

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        Ms. Checco bought the pig for $15,000, one of the highest prices of the evening. A creator of a pig herself, Ms. Checco is an enthusiastic pig booster. Her pig, “Eden Pork” went to a bidder in Florida for $6,000.

        “We think the Sow-tain should be on public display, preferably in the Westin Hotel atrium, for as long as people care about the pigs,” Ms. Checco said. “We're going to negotiate with the city to find a place for it.”

        Other pigs will return to public view as well, including Pat Renick's “The Spirit of Pigcinnati” that made such a hit at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport that the airport management wanted to buy it. They were outbid, at $11,000 by Kate Westby. “I called the artist and learned that the pig couldn't go outside, so I had no place to put it. Then the airport people told me they were still interested, so I sold it to them,” Ms. Westby said.

        “But I also bought "Maisownette' (for $5,500),” Ms. Westby said. “My son is a chef and it will go in our restaurant, when we get a restaurant.”
       

$839,000 raised

        The Big Pig Gig live auction raised $401,500 for sponsor ArtWorks and 140 other charities. The online auction of 170 pigs raised $437,500, bringing the total of money raised to $839,000.

        So the pigs did their duty, entertaining the public and raising money for charity, but what happens, post Pig Gig, to all those pigs?

        Of the 425 pigs purchased, 190 were kept by their sponsors, 170 sold online and 65 sold at the live auction at Music Hall. Some pigs are being shipped to Florida, California and other states. Most are staying in Cincinnati, where they will reside in homes, gardens and building lobbies.

        Realtor Christine Schoonover was already thinking about rearranging furniture long before she picked her pig.

        “I'm going to throw the game table out and put it right in the middle of the house.” She paid $2,750 for “Pork of Entry,” a pig she knew only by its picture in the auction catalog. “I can't wait to get my pig home,” she said. “I told my dog Kael, "I bought you a primate!' ”
       

Newspaper gets a pig

        Enquirer editorial cartoonist Jim Borgman's ""Dual Porcineality” was sponsored by this newspaper for Neediest Kids of All, and bought by the newspaper for $15,000. Publisher Harry Whipple said it will find a home in the Enquirer Building on Elm Street.

        Earl and Linda Hensley won two pigs. She bought Michael Scott's “A Pig for All Seasons — Spring” for $7,000 and Jim Farr's “Toyota Hamry,'' for $6,500. “We were bidding against Toyota for Hamry. We may offer to sell it to Toyota. The other pig will stay in a warehouse until spring. Then it will go by our pool. We have imported palm trees from Florida and we're going to have a big luau,” Ms. Hensley said.

        “Swine Lake,” with five pigs in tutus, brought $16,000 for the Cincinnati Ballet and will go to the Ballet. “A group of us got together, Jack and Blanche Maier, Dottie Levenson and I bid collectively for "Swine Lake,' ” said Otto Budig Jr.. “We felt it would be fun to put it in the lobby of the new Ballet offices.”

        Blanche Maier bought her own “Big Nutcracker Boy,” which she sponsored for the Ballet, for $4,000. “It will go in my garden,” she said. “I have a big garden and a lot of grandchildren. They'll be tickled by it.”
       

Celebs shut out

        Although celebs Carol Burnett and Jimmy Buffett expressed interest in buying pigs, neither wanted to bid at auction. “They wanted to buy a pig outright,” said Big Pig Gig spokeswoman Betsy Neyer. “And while we would have loved to sell them pigs, It wouldn't have been fair to play favorites and take pigs off auction.”

        The highest-priced pig by a large margin was Leslie Shiels' “Topigary,” the pig that was pignapped last summer. The audience went wild as auctioneer Jay Karp brought the bids up to $37,500. The buyers were Tom and Pat Robinson, who have a place for the pig on their farm near Troy, Ohio.

        Mr. Karp auctioned off his own likeness, “J. Karp Hogtioneer” for $4,300. The money goes to the Cincinnati Speech and Hearing Center. Buyer Jerry Ernst, a longtime customer at Mr. Karp's Main Auction Gallery, will put the pig in his garden.

        Like “Swine Lake,” many pigs will do double duty, as the money from the auction goes to the charity of the sponsor's choice and many of the pigs will be donated to those charities as well.

        April and Harry Davidow paid $5,500 for “Watt a Pig!” sponsored by Cinergy for the Wellness Community. “We're building a new, state-of-the-art center,” said Mr. Davidow, who is a volunteer for the Wellness Community. “And we're going to put it right in the lobby.”
       

Favorite hams

        The highest-priced pig in the eBay auction was Mer-sow-des, selling at $12,100.

        One pig, “Un Cochon dans le Jardin,” sponsored by Tiffany's for ArtWorks, was withdrawn from auction. One of the artists, Susan Koenig, died recently and ArtWorks donated the pig to her family.

        Other top pigs were Jim Farr's “Road Hog,” the motorcycle pig, $15,000; “Sparkling Swine,” the mirrored pig by Matthew Kotlarczyk sold for $11,000; “O Sowlo Meeeeo,” Stephen Geddes' gondola pig, brought $10,000. Other pigs sold for between $2,000 and $8,500.

        “I'm a nut for these pigs” said Sara Vance, who sponsored two pigs and bought three. She paid $15,000 for “Road Hog,” the motorcycle pig. “I have a Harley Davidson motorcycle, so I had to have this pig. It's going in my rec room.” “Pop Pig — Andy Warhog” ($13,000) is destined for a new game room she is building in her home. She paid $8,600 on eBay for Zaha Hadid's “Contemporary Arts Centerloin,” which will be on the patio, “where I can look at it every morning at breakfast.”

        Ms. Vance is also co-owner of “Pigtisse,” the pig that Cincinnati Art Museum kept for it's collection. “I have joint ownership with the Art Museum,” she said. “They will have it in the winter and in the summer it will be out by my pool.”

        Hillshire Farm & Kahns, which sponsored “Kahn-versation Piece” for Camp Washington Community Center and ArtWorks, bought it for $16,000. Julie Schrader, senior promotions manager at Hillshire Farm & Kahns, said that the pig, which was turned into a bench by artist Bill Seitz, will go in the company lobby on Spring Grove Avenue. “A lot of our employees' children, and others, didn't get a chance to get their picture taken with this lovely pig. Now they can,” Ms. Schrader said.

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