Collecting
Why Would Anyone Ever Pay $558,000 for a Bottle of Wine?
Records were broken at a recent Sotheby’s auction of fine Burgundy.
When a private Asian collector bid an eye-popping $558,000 for a single bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti at Sotheby’s sale this past Saturday in New York, a world record was smashed. This was not just the highest price ever reached for a 750ml bottle of Burgundy, but also the highest for any bottle of wine ever at auction.
Moments later, a second private collector, from the U.S., paid $496,000 for a second bottle of the same wine, and that too broke all previous records, minus the new one that had just been set.