Bab 655: Chapter 655: His face turned green
Although a series of auctions of Chinese cultural relics were relatively quiet, the flaws did not detract from the excellence, and most of the time the entire auction was in a fiery atmosphere.
This auction is, after all, Sotheby's summer auction. There are only four auctions of this caliber a year, and they are open to the whole of the UK. Even people from other European and American countries come to bid because there are good things.
'The next lot is sure to interest most people: two bottles of Romanee-Conti 1945 from the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti in France.'
The auctioneer introduced with a smile, opened the lid and placed it on the table. The two bottles of wine were placed quietly in a white wooden box placed diagonally facing the venue.
Sure enough, many people at the scene became interested, and some wine lovers even pursed their lips as if the wine was already in front of them.
Wu Hongyi smiled as he watched Xia Yu, who was looking at the catalogue with interest, and said, 'Xia Yu, are you interested in these two bottles of wine?'
Xia Yu nodded frankly and smiled, 'Well, since I've come all this way, I can't go home empty-handed for the sake of face. Since you're treating tonight, I'll take these two bottles. I want to try what these wines taste like that are only available in a few hundred bottles worldwide.'
From the way Xia Yu spoke, it sounded as if the two bottles of wine were already his, even though the auctioneer had not yet announced the official bidding.
In fact, given Xia Yu's wealth, no one can stop him from buying these two bottles of wine, no matter what!
When it comes to foreign red wine, most people only know Lafite.
Located in Bordeaux, France, Lafite Rothschild, belonging to the famous Rothschild family, is one of the world's top five chateaux.
If Lafite is the LV of the wine world, then Romanee-Conti is the Hermès of the wine world, synonymous with the rarest and most noble wines in the world.
Dated back to more than 900 years BC, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is one of the oldest wine estates in France. The production is very small, with an average annual output of only about 6,000 bottles, less than one-fiftieth of Château Lafite Rothschild.
On average, only one bottle of red wine can be produced for every three vines. With such a small production, some of it has to be set aside for storage, so Romanée-Conti wines on the market are very rare and are only for the rich.
The 1945 Romanee-Conti is even rarer, with only one tenth of the usual production.
In the spring of 1945, the old vines in the vineyard suffered heavy casualties due to hail and the effects of the Second World War, resulting in a significant reduction in grape production. The situation was extremely bleak. As a result, the production of Romanee-Conti, which was already extremely low, was only 608 bottles in 1945.
After the 1945 harvest, the original rootstock of the Romanee-Conti vineyard, which had been left behind by phylloxera, was removed. Although new saplings were subsequently imported from the neighbouring La Tache vineyard, the estate did not produce Romanee-Conti wine for the next six years in order to maintain the quality of the wine.
In other words, there was not a single new Romanée-Conti on the market from 1946 to 1951.
Therefore, 1945 has a very special meaning for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.
According to the estimate of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, including the wine they have in storage, there are no more than 200 bottles of the 1945 vintage still in the world today.
I still remember that in the previous life, at Sotheby's wine auction in 2010, three bottles of the 1869 Lafite Rothschild were sold for a sky-high price of 233,000 US dollars each, and the total price of the three bottles was about 5 million RMB, making Lafite Rothschild the most expensive wine in the world at that time.
However, in 2018, at a Sotheby's wine auction, a bottle of 1945 Romanee Conti wine finally sold for 558,000 US dollars, a price that broke the world record of 233,000 US dollars once held by the 1869 Lafite.
And this is just the price of one bottle, and the vintage is 76 years younger than the auctioned Lafite!
Later, someone wanted to buy a bottle of 1945 Romanee-Conti at this price to try it, but no one ever put it up for sale.
In a previous life, Xia Yu was not qualified to taste this kind of wine. After all, one sip of this kind of wine is equivalent to drinking out of a toilet in a second-tier city.
Now that the opportunity is in front of him, and he has no shortage of money, naturally he wants to buy it to taste it.
'I hereby declare the auction open at a starting price of £25,000, with a minimum bid of £1,000.
'Duang~'
The hammer fell, and the bidding began.
£26,000!
£27,000!
£28,000!
£58,000!
In less than a minute, the price had soared to nearly £60,000.
Naturally, the number of bidders was also decreasing, with only four remaining.
The 1945 Romanee Conti is only 34 years old, which is not that long.
Nowadays, you can definitely buy a 100-year-old wine in Bordeaux, France, for 30,000 pounds.
In the eyes of many people, the significance of these two wines is more important than their taste, which is actually not as good as that of other 70- to 80-year-old wines or even 100-year-old wines.
After another half minute, the price soared to £78,000, and there was only one remaining competitor, a middle-aged man who had been aggressively bidding.
Xia Yu no longer waited, and just as the middle-aged man was about to smile, he raised his paddle and casually said two words: 'Increase the price by £10,000!'
He was too lazy to haggle with others over £1,000, so he simply increased the price by £10,000, showing his unyielding attitude and making the other person give up.
Sure enough, as soon as Xia Yu's price was announced, the smile on the middle-aged man's face, who had been increasing the price, froze. After hesitating repeatedly, he finally did not raise his paddle again.
After three readings, no one bid, and the two bottles of Romanee-Conti 1945 were acquired by Xia Yu for £88,000.
'Eighty-eight thousand, this is a lucky number, it seems that I will have to drink a lot tonight to soak up your wealth!'
Wu Hongyi said to Xia Yu with a smile.
'Haha, you said it, I'll get drunk tonight!'
Xia Yu said with a smile.
Next, Xia Yu did not participate in the auction again, but instead Wu Hongyi spent 100,000 pounds to bid on a painting.
According to him, it is not good to go home empty-handed, so he simply bought a painting to hang in his office and add an exotic touch to his collection.
Just because Xia Yu did not do it himself, it does not mean that the people he arranged did not.
After four days of the summer auction, all the Chinese cultural relics were sold by the five people he arranged, at prices ranging from high to low. A total of 48 fine cultural relics were auctioned for a total price of 1.7 million pounds.
However, when it was time to pay after the summer auction ended, none of the five people showed up and all refused to pay.
After a long time, the people at Sotheby's auction house and Giuseppe Eskenazi knew that something was wrong.
The general manager of Sotheby's London branch was jumping with impatience. Forty-eight lots had been refused payment, which was the first time this had happened in over a hundred years, and he could not bear the responsibility!
And Giuseppe Eskenazi, the provider of all the lots, was not in a better situation. He was in the reception room of Sotheby's, his face looking ugly as he looked at the general manager of Sotheby's in front of him, extremely annoyed.
He had been tricked!
Normally, it is quite common for items to be unsold at auctions, and the auction house can negotiate with the seller and sell the item privately.
But the situation was completely different this time.
He had provided all the Chinese cultural relics, and after they had all been sold, the buyers refused to pay. According to the agreement he had signed with Sotheby's, he would also have to pay a 25% commission to Sotheby's.
'Mr Giuseppe, I'm really sorry about this unexpected situation. We didn't check it carefully enough,'
'I don't know if this is possible. Can we contact the second bidder who made the previous bid and sell the item to them at their bid?'
In order to minimise the impact, the general manager of Sotheby's took a deep breath and suggested to Giuseppe Eskenazi.
This is a common method used by auction houses after a buyer refuses to pay. After consulting with the seller, they contact the second bidder and sell the item.
But this time was completely different. Upon hearing the words of the general manager of Sotheby's, Giuseppe Eskenazi's face suddenly turned green.
Because the second highest bidder for these 48 lots was an agent arranged by him!
Does this mean that he has to spend 1.67 million pounds of his own money to buy back all the lots he provided?
And he also has to pay the seller a 25% commission and the buyer a 10% commission, which totals 35% of the ownership, or more than 500,000 pounds!
Not only did his plan to speculate on Chinese cultural relics fail, but he also had to spend more than 500,000 pounds on it, which was a waste of time and effort!
How can this be?
Unless he's out of his mind, he would never agree to this!
Status Power Mingguan
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Power 
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