This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Hong Kong becomes Sotheby’s number one
The Far East’s increasingly powerful role in the fine wine market has been confirmed by the latest auction reports from Hong Kong.
Over the last weekend alone, Sotheby’s raised over HK$60 million (€5.3m) from a two-day auction in the city, making Hong Kong the largest fine wine market for the auction house this year.
Sotheby’s said that the total fetched in the sale was almost 30% ahead of its highest estimate, taking its Hong Kong total to €9.7m, compared to €7.1m in New York and €5.4m in London.
The highlight of the auction was an imperial (six-litre bottle) of Château Pétrus 1982 which was bought by a mainland Chinese buyer for HK$726,000 (€64,000). Sotheby’s noted that 99% of buyers at the weekend auction were Asian.
This latest sale puts Hong Kong on course to top the €41m mark in fine wine auction sales, double the total expected in London sales for 2009.
Patrick Schmitt, 08.10.2009