HONG KONG, Nov.24 — Twelve bottles of Romanee-Conti 1978 fetched HK$3.675 million (RM1.52 million) at a Christie’s International Plc sale in Hong Kong, smashing an auction record for a case of wine.
A Chinese buyer outbid a fellow national for the Burgundy at the auction yesterday. The high estimate was HK$1.1 million. The record price works out to about US$39,500 per bottle or about US$6,600 per glass.
“This is a new world record for any case of wine,” David Elswood, Christie’s international wine department head, said today, the last day of a three-day wine sale.
The previous record for a case of wine sold at auction was set in 2006 when six magnums of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 1945 sold for US$345,000, he said.
Record prices for wine come even as the benchmark Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index erased gains made in the first 10 weeks of the year. While Bordeaux still dominates wine-fund holdings, Burgundies have taken an increasing share of top 10 slots at auctions. — Bloomberg
