Although the series of auctions of Chinese cultural relics are relatively cold, the flaws are not hidden, and the whole auction is in a hot atmosphere most of the time.

After all, this auction is a summer auction held by Sotheby's, and there are only four auctions of this grade a year, and it is also open to the whole of the United Kingdom, and even because there are good things, people from other countries in Europe and the United States will come to bid.

"The following lot, I believe most people will be interested, consists of two 1945 Romanée Conti wines from Château Romanée Conti in France. ”

The auctioneer smiled and opened the lid and placed it on the table, diagonally placing the white wooden box facing the venue, where two bottles of wine lay quietly.

Sure enough, many people at the scene were interested, and some people who were good at wine even pursed their lips, as if the wine had been poured in front of them.

Looking at Xia Yu, who was looking at the album with interest, Wu Hongyi smiled and said, "Xia Yu, have you taken a fancy to these two bottles of wine?"

Xia Yu nodded calmly and smiled: "Well, since you have come, you can't go home empty-handed for the sake of face, just tonight you have a treat, I will bring these two bottles to the bar and taste what it tastes like when there are only a few hundred bottles of wine in the world." ”

Listening to Xia Yu's tone, although the auctioneer has not yet announced the official bidding, these two bottles of wine are already in his pocket.

In fact, for Xia Yu's net worth, he was determined to take pictures of these two bottles of wine, and no one could stop him!

When it comes to foreign wines, most ordinary people only know Lafite.

Located in Bordeaux, France, Château Lafite, which belongs to the famous Rothschild family, is one of the top five wineries in the world.

If Lafite is the LV of the wine world, then Romanée Conti is the Hermès of the wine world, synonymous with the rarest and noblest wines in the world.

Dating back to more than 900 BC, Château Romanée Conti is one of the oldest wine estates in France, with a very small production, with an average annual production of about 6,000 bottles, less than one-fiftieth of that of Château Lafite, and an average of one bottle of red wine for every three wines.

With such a scarce production, a part of it has to be used for storage, so the Romanée Conti wines on the market are very scarce, and they are the stuff of the mouths of the rich.

The 1945 Romanée Conti wines were even rarer, only one-tenth of the usual production.

In the spring of 1945, due to hail and the effects of the Second World War, the vineyard suffered heavy casualties, which led to a significant reduction in the grape production, and the situation was extremely bleak, so that Romanée-Conti, which had produced very little wine, produced only 608 bottles in 1945.

After the 1945 harvest, the vines were uprooted from the Romanée-Conti vineyard before phylloxera disease, and although new seedlings were later introduced from the neighbouring vineyard of Latachy, the winery did not produce Romanée-Conti for the next six years in order to maintain the quality of the wine.

In other words, from 1946 to 1951, there was not a single new Romanée Conti on the market.

The year 1945 therefore has a very special significance for Château Romanée Conti.

According to Romanée Conti, no more than 200 1945 wines remain in the world, including their stockpiles.

I still remember that in the previous life, Sotheby's auction house sold three bottles of 1869 Lafite at a wine auction in 2010, each with a price of 233,000 US dollars, and the total price of the three bottles was about 5 million yuan, making Lafite the most expensive wine in the world at that time.

But in 2018, a bottle of Romanée Conti from 1945 sold for $558,000 at Sotheby's, breaking the world record of $233,000 held by Lafite in 1869.

And that's just the price of one piece, and the vintage is 76 years less than the auctioned Lafite!

And later, some people wanted to buy a bottle of Romanée Conti of the 1945 vintage at this price to try it, but no one took it out and sold it, and there was no market!

In his previous life, Xia Yu was not qualified to taste this kind of wine, after all, taking a sip of this wine is equivalent to drinking a toilet in a second-tier city.

Now that the opportunity is in front of him, and he is not short of money, he naturally wants to buy it and taste it.

"Now I announce that the reserve price is twenty-five thousand pounds, and each increase shall not be less than one thousand pounds, and the auction begins!"

“duang~”

The hammer fell, and there were people constantly raising their cards to bid on the field.

Twenty-six thousand pounds!

Twenty-seven thousand pounds!

......

Fifty-eight thousand pounds!

In less than a minute, the price soared to nearly 60,000 pounds.

Naturally, there are fewer and fewer bidders, and only four are still following suit.

The 1945 vintage of Romanée Conti is only 34 years ago, which is not a long time.

Now I go to Bordeaux, France, and spend 30,000 pounds, and I can definitely buy a century-old wine.

In the eyes of many people, the two wines in front of them are also important for meaning, but in fact, the taste is not as good as other wines of seventy or eighty years or even a hundred years, so there is no need to spend this money.

After another half a minute, the price soared to 78,000 pounds, and the only competitor was left with a middle-aged man who had been raising the price fiercely.

Xia Yu didn't wait any longer, just when the middle-aged man just showed a smile, he held up the sign and spit out two words lightly: "Increase the price by 10,000 pounds!"

He was too lazy to grind with others for 1,000 pounds, and directly increased the price by 10,000 pounds, showing his imperative attitude and letting the other party retreat.

Sure enough, as soon as Xia Yu's price came out, the smile on the face of the middle-aged man who had been raising the price froze, hesitated again and again, and finally did not raise his card again.

After three readings, no one bided, and two 1945 Romanée Conti wines were bought by Xia Yu for £88,000.

"Eighty-eight, this number is auspicious, it seems that I have to drink more tonight to touch your wealth!"

Wu Hongyi said to Xia Yu with a smile.

"Haha, that's what you said, if you don't get drunk, you won't return!"

Xia Yu smiled and said.

Next, Xia Yu did not participate in the auction again, but Wu Hongyi spent 100,000 pounds to auction an oil painting.

According to him, it is not good to go home empty-handed, so he simply buys a painting and hangs it in the office to add an exotic color to his collection.

Xia Yu didn't do it himself, it doesn't mean that the people he arranged didn't do it.

After a total of four days of summer auctions, all the Chinese cultural relics were auctioned by five people arranged by him, and the prices were high and low, a total of 48 fine cultural relics, and the cumulative auction price was 1.7 million pounds.

It's just that when the summer auction ended and the money was to be delivered, none of the five people showed up, and all of them refused to pay.

After a long time, the people at Sotheby's and Giuseppe Eskenazi knew that something was wrong.

The general manager of Sotheby's London branch jumped to his feet in a hurry, and refused to pay for 48 lots, which was the first time in more than 100 years that this had happened, and he could not afford this responsibility!

And Giuseppe Eskenazi, the provider of all the lots, was no better, and in the reception room of Sotheby's, he looked at the general manager of Sotheby's in front of him with an ugly face, and his heart was extremely annoyed.

He's been sucked in!

Generally speaking, it is normal for lots to be unsold at auctions, and the auction house can negotiate with the seller and then sell them privately.

But now the situation is completely different.

All the Chinese cultural relics were provided by him, and after all the Chinese cultural relics were auctioned, the buyer refused to pay, and according to the agreement he signed with Sotheby's, he also had to pay 25 percent of the commission to Sotheby's.

"Mr. Giuseppe, I'm really sorry that this unexpected situation has happened now, because we are not strict in our control. ”

"I wonder if that's okay? We contact the second buyer who made the previous bid and close the deal with their bid?"

In order to minimize 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 to contact the second buyer to sell the lot after the buyer refuses to pay.

It's just that this time is completely different, hearing the words of the general manager of Sotheby's, Giuseppe Eskenazi's face suddenly turned green.

Because of these forty-eight lots, the second highest bid was arranged by him!

Is this to buy back all the lots he offers for 16.7 million pounds himself?

And you have to pay 25% of the seller's commission and 10% of the buyer's commission, a total of 35% of the money, more than 500,000 pounds!

He was busy with his own work, not to mention the hype plan of Chinese cultural relics, and he would lose more than 500,000 pounds when it was time-consuming and labor-intensive!

How does this work?

He won't say yes until his brain is pumping!

PS: I unconsciously wrote that it was more than four o'clock, and I had to get up to work at seven o'clock in the(╥_╥)morning