Asian buyers dominated the top end of the wine market

Asian collectors get drunk at London auction houses

An Edvard Munch print and a Birkin were stars at London auction houses this month. But thanks to Asian collectors, it's been fine wine and silver that have seen the most success.

In a slew of auctions where billionaires remained selective when it came to Impressionist and contemporary art, Asian collectors set the pace at auctions of wine and English silver in London this month.

The silver record was set at Sotheby's on July 6 when an Asian collector paid a high-estimate £2.5 million ($5.3 billion) for a 4-foot-wide early 18th-century wine cistern.

"Over the last six months we've noticed a marked increase in buying from clients in China at our sales in London and New York," said a Sotheby's spokesperson. "They're concentrating on English silver and focusing on traditional key elements such as quality, condition and provenance to influence their acquisitions."

Asian buyers also dominated the top end of the auction market for fine wines in London this summer. All three of the most expensive lots at both Christie's and Sotheby's auctions on June 10 and July 14 fell to Asian bidders at above-estimate prices.

Christie's top lot was a group of six magnums of Romanee-Conti's 1971 vintage at £71,300, while at Sotheby's a 12-bottle case of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild '82 fetched £39,100, beating its estimate, while another case in similar condition sold for £36,800.

"Nearly 50 per cent of the lots were sold to Asian-based clients as many of the top lots headed east," said a Christie's spokesperson.

Elsewhere, buyers are only willing to pay the largest sums for the best works.

The Munch lithograph of a doomed femme fatale - titled Madonna - went for a record US$2 million ($2.7 million) to a US collector at a Bonhams print sale, setting an auction record for a print and making it the second most expensive print in the world.

Meanwhile, a private Russian client paid £42,050 for a 2010 "Bleu Abyss" crocodile "Birkin" at Christie's International's auction of jewellery and Hermes handbags.