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Sotheby’s hosts largest ever spirits auction
Auctioneer Sotheby’s is launching its largest spirits sale to date, comprising more than 1,000 lots of Scotch whisky.
The auction is made up of two collections: The Three Continents Collection Part IV and The Hollywood Collection.
The sale, with lots making up a combined estimated value of US$1.5 million, will take place in New York City, US, on 10 May.
Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s head of whisky and spirits, North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “Recent years have seen Sotheby’s set auction records for the most valuable whisky bottle and whisky collection of all time, so it seems only fitting that we are now staging our largest ever spirits auction by volume.”
The Three Continents Collection is the largest single-owner collection of whisky to be offered by Sotheby’s, containing a collection of Scotch, American and Japanese whiskies.
The Hollywood Collection was acquired by a California-based entrepreneur in 2008.
It boasts East Coast and Midwest-import Scotch whisky, and was compiled by a US whisky broker who had the intention of selling the lots to film industry personnel. Following a ‘change in climate’, the collection was left unopened.
Fowle added: “Spirits represent an increasingly important market for Sotheby’s, as we saw in 2021 with a record year and a 42% increase in sales.
“Dominating the auction line-up are Scotch whiskies, which have a global appeal and the ability to age for decades, two selling points that are inextricably linked by collectors’ desires to own the oldest and rarest bottles available on the market.”
The auction will include the sale of The Macallan Millennium Decanter 50 Years Old, estimated to fetch up to US$30,000; The Balvenie 50 Years Old, expected to fetch up to US$26,000; and the Bowmore 40 Years Old, with a projected value of up to US$24,000.
Earlier this year, Sotheby’s opened bidding for the world’s ‘most valuable’ sale of American whiskey on the secondary market, with an estimated worth of up to US$1.2m.