HONG KONG, May 26 ― Bottles of Romanee-Conti belonging to former Manchester United Manager Alex Ferguson and a record-setting painting by Liu Wei led Christie’s weekend sales in Hong Kong.
The Ferguson sale raised HK$29.5 million (RM12.2 million) as wine lovers and football fans bid up prices. Many of the bottles bore Ferguson’s signature or were sold along with t-shirts to capitalize on the popularity of British soccer’s most successful manager, who led Manchester to 38 trophies in 26 years before retiring last year.
“He’s famous,” said Powell Yang, a Hong Kong-based wine dealer who only bid successfully on two lots because so many others were willing to pay a premium compared to non-celebrity wines. “The prices were 30 per cent higher than usual on Bordeaux and on Burgundy maybe 50 per cent.”
The most expensive lot in the Ferguson sale on May 24 was a six-liter bottle, known as a methuselah, of Romanee-Conti Domaine de la Romanee-Conti 1997 that sold for HK$1.2 million.
The wine auction was followed by Christie’s evening sale of Asian 20th century and contemporary art that raised HK$493 million according to the Christie’s website, less than the HK$670 million sold at Sotheby’s evening sale on April 7 for the same sale category.
The 1998 Liu painting titled “Landscape” sold for HK$21.4 million, compared with a high estimate of HK$12 million, breaking the artist’s record set at a Christie’s sale in November of HK$20.3 million, according to the Artnet price database.
The five-day sale of contemporary Asian art, classical Chinese paintings and ceramics, jewelry, watches and wine is estimated by the auction house to raise HK$2.5 billion when it ends on May 28.
Ferguson also sold bottles of first growth Bordeaux wines from the chateaus of Haut Brion, Margaux, Lafite, Mouton Rothschild as well as right bank Bordeaux Chateau Petrus. ― Bloomberg
