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Latour '61 fetches top price at Sotheby's HK auction
By Le-Min Lim |
April 19, 2009, Sunday
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ALL 9,000 bottles were sold at Sotheby's first wine auction in Hong Kong earlier this month, fetching a higher-than-expected HK$49.9 million (US$6.4 million). Dozens of items sold for several times auction-house forecasts and some exceeded prices from local dealers, said collectors.
The most expensive lot was a 6-liter bottle of 1961 Chateau Latour which went for HK$484,000, against a pre-sale estimate of HK$400,000. Sotheby's said it had expected the 750-lot sale to raise a total of HK$30 million. Estimates don't include a 21 percent buyer's commission. With this auction, Sotheby's waded into Hong Kong's nascent wine-auction market to rival competitors Christie's International and Acker Merrall & Condit. In Hong Kong, wine has fared better than other categories at auction, with Christie's and Acker reporting more than 90 percent of lots selling at their most-recent sales, aided by competition between bidders even as economic growth slowed.
"I thought the wines were too expensive," George Tong, a Hong Kong-based collector, said.
Citing as example a 12-bottle, original-casing 1959 Chateau Margaux, which fetched HK$200,000 at Sotheby's, Tong said he had paid about HK$40,000 in October for a 6-bottle lot of the same wine at Bonham's auction in Hong Kong.
A 12-bottle lot of 2000 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, in original wooden casing, fetched HK$162,500 but Tong said the wine retails in Hong Kong about HK$10,000 a bottle. The 10 priciest lots were bought by Asian private collectors, said Sotheby's. Buyers from the region paid a combined HK$1.3 million for a 9-lot assortment of 108 bottles of 1996 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.
About 300 people watched in the packed room as auctioneer Jamie Ritchie took bids from telephone and salesroom buyers. The auction was the twin of a March 14 sale in New York that netted US$2.2 million, both of which sold bottles from the same American collector, which Sotheby's didn't identify.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is promoting the city as Asia's wine-trading center, abolishing duties and lowering the costs of trading and storing bottles to encourage more collectors to move their wines from hubs such as London.
The most expensive lot was a 6-liter bottle of 1961 Chateau Latour which went for HK$484,000, against a pre-sale estimate of HK$400,000. Sotheby's said it had expected the 750-lot sale to raise a total of HK$30 million. Estimates don't include a 21 percent buyer's commission. With this auction, Sotheby's waded into Hong Kong's nascent wine-auction market to rival competitors Christie's International and Acker Merrall & Condit. In Hong Kong, wine has fared better than other categories at auction, with Christie's and Acker reporting more than 90 percent of lots selling at their most-recent sales, aided by competition between bidders even as economic growth slowed.
"I thought the wines were too expensive," George Tong, a Hong Kong-based collector, said.
Citing as example a 12-bottle, original-casing 1959 Chateau Margaux, which fetched HK$200,000 at Sotheby's, Tong said he had paid about HK$40,000 in October for a 6-bottle lot of the same wine at Bonham's auction in Hong Kong.
A 12-bottle lot of 2000 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, in original wooden casing, fetched HK$162,500 but Tong said the wine retails in Hong Kong about HK$10,000 a bottle. The 10 priciest lots were bought by Asian private collectors, said Sotheby's. Buyers from the region paid a combined HK$1.3 million for a 9-lot assortment of 108 bottles of 1996 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.
About 300 people watched in the packed room as auctioneer Jamie Ritchie took bids from telephone and salesroom buyers. The auction was the twin of a March 14 sale in New York that netted US$2.2 million, both of which sold bottles from the same American collector, which Sotheby's didn't identify.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is promoting the city as Asia's wine-trading center, abolishing duties and lowering the costs of trading and storing bottles to encourage more collectors to move their wines from hubs such as London.
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