Millionaire auctions: The dazzling world of luxury auctions and their records

Earlier this week, a bottle of whiskey broke all records in its category by selling for $2.8 million at a collector.

LOOK: How a sale by the historic auction house Christie’s has unleashed a huge controversy linked to the Nazis

This is an exclusive bottle of The Emerald Isle, a triple-distilled pure malt spirit, aged for 30 years, with packaging designed by Fabergé jewelry and produced by The Craft Irish Whiskey. According to the Irish company, there are only seven extra-exclusive packages that include this drink.

“It is the bottle of ‘whiskey’, or whiskey, never sold”, assured the company. The clarification between both spellings is on purpose and seems like a dig at the Scottish industry, which until now dominated this high-end sector and held the record after in November of last year a bottle of The Macallan 1926 sold for US$2, 7 million.

The Emerald Isle bottle was acquired by American collector Mike Daley.

In addition to the bottle, the exclusive box contained Cohiba cigars and a Fabergé egg containing an emerald.

– Millions at stake –

Although they may look exorbitant, the prices paid for both whiskeys are light years away from the stratospheric figures reached at luxury auctions.

The world of bidding is dominated by a staging in which each lot is presented with an array of exquisite details and a carefully woven narrative to arouse the interest of passionate collectors, investors or representatives of cultural institutions.

To get there, the piece is first evaluated by a team of experts from the auction house. They are the ones who will determine its value based on authenticity, rarity, state of conservation and market demand.

If the piece is accepted, the owner and the auction house agree on the terms and conditions for the operation. There are countless businesses dedicated to auctions, but the most important are, by far, the British Sotheby’s and Christie’s; followed by the also English Bonhams, Phillips and the Austrian Dorotheum.

– Hammer –

Let’s assume then that your piece was evaluated and accepted by Christie’s. The prestigious house will be in charge of exhibiting the work for several days in one of its facilities. Afterwards, your exclusive client list will be called for the next auction, in which your piece will hopefully be included.

The bidding begins with the so-called reserve price – the minimum willing to accept by the seller – and increases depending on the offers. The limit? Uncertain, since it lies in the desire of each client to possess an exclusive treasure whose value transcends the metallic and becomes a sign of status.

That led, for example, to a Rolex watch that belonged to actor Paul Newman being sold in 2018 for $17 million.

A year later, a famous painting by the British artist Banksy was awarded for 1.4 million dollars, which immediately afterwards self-destructed and, of course, in 2017 the highest historical record was broken when the value of the painting closed at 450.3 million dollars. painting “Salvator Mundi”, by Leonardo da Vinci. The person in charge of paying the surreal figure was the Saudi crown prince Mohamed bin Salman.

Other names linked to these ultra-exclusive items are the former Qatari prime minister and Sheikh Hamad bin Yasem bin Yaber Al Zani, who would have purchased the painting “Les femmes d’Alger” through a representative.

It is presumed that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was the one who proposed the best offer for the Giga-Yacht in the historic eBay auction.

And according to the “New York Post”, the American billionaire investor and collector Steven Cohen would have been the one who acquired the sculpture “L’homme au doigt”. Many of these are speculations, since what is common in these cases is that the identity of the buyers is kept confidential for security.