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A 6-liter bottle of 1961 Chateau Latour sold HK $ 484,000 ($ 62,000) in Hong Kong, the cost-effective point to Sotheby's first wine auction in the city, where dozens of lots sold for several times their estimates.
The Imperial - the equivalent of eight standard-size bottles of wine - presale estimate of HK $ 400,000. The bottle is one of 9000 from an American collection, which Sotheby's offering. The auction goes on. Estimates do not include 21 percent of the buyer Commission.
“Many lots were going for way above what you would pay in the market,” George Tong, a Hong Kong-based collector, said in an interview at the sale. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm.”
With this sale, Sotheby's is wading in Hong Kong emerging wine-auction market for competing competitor Christie's International and Acker Merrall & Condit. In Hong Kong, wine is better than the other categories auction, with Christie's and field reporting more than 90 percent of the lots sold their last turnover, as well as economic growth slows.
The government in Hong Kong is to promote the city as Asia's wine-trading center. Last February, the government has abolished customs duties on beverages, reducing the cost of trade and the storage of bottles in Hong Kong to attract more Asian collectors, their wines from the current hubs like London.
At Sotheby's auction this morning, a packed room of about 300 people - some sitting at the table snacks served that, with others sitting in rows - watched as the auctioneer Jamie Ritchie elicits offers from telephone sales and customer premises. Three 6-liter bottles of 1996 Romanee Conti sold for HK $ 387,200 each, 11 percent higher than its top presale estimate.
The Sotheby's auction begins five-day sale of 1700 many paintings, antiques and gems that the company expects to fetch more than HK $ 600 million. |
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