Courtyard of Hotel Dieu, Beaune, France. Image used under license from Shutterstock.com
A charity auction held each year at the Hospices de Beaune raised $16 million this year. Decanter’s Chris Mercer reports that the auctions most valuable lot sold for $495,000. He writes:
The Hospices de Beaune 2017 auction raised a record 13.5 million euros (£12m, $16m), according to auction organiser Christie’s, beating the previous record set in 2015.
Top lot in the auction, the traditional ‘La pièce des Présidents’ sold for €420,000, which was the second highest total on record; its 2015 equivalent selling for 480,000 euros.
See the top 10 lots below. Data supplied by Christie’s. Prix realisé means the price paid, with currency translations given.
All proceeds from the the presidents’ lot go to charity and this year it consisted of two barrels of Corton Clos du Roi Grand Cru. It was bought jointly by Maison Albert Bichot and an unnamed China-based investor, Christie’s said.
The chosen charities and their representatives at the auction were:
- Agnès b and Julie Depardieu for The Foundation Tara Expéditions;
- Marc-Olivier Fogiel, for The Federation for Brain Research;
- Charles Aznavour for The Foundation for Alzheimer Research.
The results mark a return to form for the annual Hospices de Beaune auction, albeit there was also more wine to sell from a 2017 vintage that proved relatively plentiful versus its immediate predecessors.
Read more here.
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