A man pours wine into a glass. Photo by Only France via AFP
Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau is set to auction a wine collection valued at over HK$35 million (US$5.8 million) with over 200 lots of premium wines.
The lots include rare bottles from Henri Jayer, Petrus vintages, and selections from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, as part of Christie’s Hong Kong Luxury Week, according to Bloomberg.
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Hong Kong billionaire and real estate tycoon Joseph Lau and his wife Kimbee Chan. Photo courtesy of Chan’s Instagram |
The highest-valued lot, 10 bottles of Henri Jayer’s Vosne-Romanée Cros-Parantoux, is estimated to fetch up to HKD1.4 million, based on auction house Christie’s estimates.
The auction, scheduled for Thursday, Lau’s third wine collection sale with Christie’s, following two successful auctions in 2022 that generated a combined US$16 million.
Some lots in those sales sold for more than double their high estimates.
Lau, 73, is a prominent figure in the auction market as both a collector and seller.
He has an estimated net worth of US$5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His wealth primarily stems from his and his family’s commercial property holdings and a stake in Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd.
His property business has faced challenges amid a sector downturn in Hong Kong.
In 2014, the tycoon was convicted of bribery and money laundering in Macau but has not served prison time, as there is no extradition agreement between Macau and Hong Kong.
