An 80-day online auction of the 35 Elephant Parade art pieces that were on display at intu Watford and other shopping centres around the UK began this week.

The parade aimed to raise lasting awareness through art of the future of the Asian elephant.

More than 8,000 people submitted design ideas and 75 schools created half sized elephants that joined the tour, a digital show reel took the art online and many people have taken part in live painting workshops with UK tour artists.

The auction offers people the opportunity to own one of the original tour art pieces. The auction is being run by givinglive.com and money raised with be presented by intu to the Asian Elephant Foundation when the UK tour concludes at intu Bromley this July.

Bids can be placed via the tour website at www.intuelephantparade.co.uk/elephants