The Port of Yamba Historical Society held its inaugural ‘Raising the Roof’ fund raising art auction, on Saturday in The Old Kirk at the Yamba Museum. An assortment of 94 art works including painting, photographs, linocuts, lithographs and woodwork were contributed by 38 artists. Yamba Museum secretary Lesley Pickering said that amongst the works in the auction were 10 prints from the infamous ‘fish’ paintings by JTP. “The art works were discovered under a bed in a room, at Yamba’s Pacific Hotel decades ago,” said Ms Pickering. “They were kept by an associate of the hotel and in 2000, the 223 original art works were gifted to the museum.” Ms Pickering said that the ‘Raising the Roof’ project has taken five months to pull together with the help of Janet Pickup, Kerrie Huxham and Marea Buist, who have assisted her. Saturday’s auction saw a large crowd attend, with all works of art being sold. Over 100 people viewed the art works with around 50 participating in the live auction. The museum would like to thank to Simon Dougherty who volunteered his time as auctioneer on the day and kept the crowd entertained with his wry comments, making it a fun event.