When is Dragon 8’s next auction?

Despite claims the Hong Kong auction house would hold a sale this winter there appears to be no sign that this will be the case.

Earlier this year, the drinks business was told that Dragon 8 had closed down, with the majority of its staff being laid off in September. Responding to db’s question if this was true, the house’s founder, Gil Lempert-Schwarz, replied: “When 8 Dragons assemble in plain view in Victoria Harbour is when those rumours may have merit.”

Lempert-Schwarz added that he was auctioneer at the recent sale of Nike’s ‘Mag’ self-lacing trainers in Hong Kong on 11 October. Sold for the benefit of the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the shoes (which first appeared as a concept in the Back to the Future trilogy) raised HK$810,000 (US$104,267) for the charity. Further pairs of the limited edition shoes are to be sold in London and New York.

Asked then if Dragon 8 would be holding another auction this year, Lempert-Schwarz replied – on 18 October – that: “We are currently putting the final touches on the consignments, where we do have some highly interesting Whisky items again, but sometime at the end of November looks likely, possibly early December, really down to availability of the venue most prefer at the Grand Hyatt. I’m looking forward to beating our current World Record for the Macallan Lalique and casks in the upcoming sale.”

Despite this declaration, since that date the Dragon 8 website has contained and continues to contain absolutely no reference to any such sale nor have any of its social media accounts advertised a possible auction in any way.

Earlier this week db sent another inquiry to Lempert-Schwarz about his claims of a sale taking place by the end of the year. He did not reply.

The last wine and spirits sale held by Dragon 8 was in June and the date is now well past for consignments for a proposed September auction, which was apparently abandoned with no explanation as to why.

The company’s creative director, Scott Murphy, also told db – on Thursday 20 October – that the auction would be taking place as stated by Lempert-Schwarz but was unable to elaborate further when or where nor why there had been no press material issued for the event.

Dragon 8’s original offices in The Center were firmly shut when db went round on 19 October

The cause of the confusion concerning Dragon 8’s alleged closure appears to have been that Dragon 8 relocated from its initial offices some time in late September or early October.

When db went round to Dragon 8’s original offices in one of Central’s most prestigious skyscrapers, ‘The Center’, on the morning of Wednesday 19 October they were very clearly shut, with a chain and padlock on the door (see picture). Workers in neighbouring offices said it had been like that for over a week.

The office phone number listed on the website had also been redirected to Lempert-Schwarz’s mobile phone as it is listed on his email signature.

Furthermore, on 11 October Lempert-Schwarz filed a change of address for Dragon 8 Wine Auctions with the Hong Kong Companies Registry, which supposedly took effect on 30 September. The new address is in a business block in Kwun Tung, on the Kowloon side near the old airport. Both the address and phone number on Dragon 8’s website were only amended after db had pointed out the discrepancy to Lempert-Schwarz

A call to the new office number on Friday 21 October led to a conversation with a local man who said he worked in the warehouse. No further calls to that number resulted in a conversation with anyone who appeared to work on the sales side of the business.

This November, the drinks business published an article on Dragon 8 questioning the provenance of a Scotch whisky it was selling, the Michael Wong, 35-year-old Glenlivet or ‘MW35’.

A number of pages and pictures on the Dragon 8 website that were cited in that article have subsequently been removed.

Dragon 8 is still registered as active on the Hong Kong Companies Register.

Additional reporting by the drinks business Hong Kong.