Sotheby’s sales fetch $411m in Hong Kong

HONG KONG (AFP) ―Sotheby’s said Friday it had sold more than $410 million in luxury goods, wine, art and antiques in its autumn sale in Hong Kong, with wealthy Chinese collectors driving much of the bidding.

The October 1-6 autumn sale saw more than 3,000 lots sold for more than HK$3.2 billion (US$411 million), the city’s second highest sale ever, the auction house said in a statement.

Highlights included a 15th-century Ming vase that fetched a record HK$168.7 million, and a work by Chinese abstract artist Zao Wouki that was snapped up for HK$69 million.

Records were also set for the highest price per carat for a fancy vivid blue diamond and a fancy vivid orange diamond, as wealthy Asian and Western collectors competed in sales seen as a gauge of high-end consumer sentiment in uncertain economic times.

Sotheby’s Asia chief executive Kevin Ching said 2011 sales in Hong Kong had smashed last year’s results.

“The very successful results achieved this season bring Sotheby’s Hong Kong’s 2011 auction total to an impressive sum of HK$7.49 billion (US$960 million), a 40 percent increase from the 2010 auction total,” he said.

Hong Kong has become the world’s third biggest auction centre after New York and London, thanks largely to the rapid rise of private wealth among affluent Chinese.