Holly’s International (HK) to host its first Hong Kong auction this weekend

Holly’s International (HK) is set to host their first-ever auction in the city later this month from 25–27 May at the Grand Ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, with an expansive array of lots on offer. Premium items include Chinese classical paintings and calligraphy, modern and contemporary art, Chinese ceramics, porcelain and jade, as well as jewellery and watches, which will be sold over the course of nine different sessions.

While this will be Holly’s International (HK)’s first showing in Hong Kong, the international auction company’s team comprises professionals from across the globe and has been operating in southern China for over 25 years. The international organisation prides itself in its ability to create a centre for Asian and Western scholars and art, while ensuring collectors have the opportunity to take home true masterpieces.

Among the impressive collection, perhaps one of the most unique lots is a series of 12 print spray canvases that have been painted on by the late American comic book writer, editor, publisher and producer, Stan Lee. Marvel fans will surely be delighted with the series as it includes covers from vintage Captain America, Spiderman and The Hulk issues, and more, all of which have been personally autographed by Lee.

Meanwhile, Holly’s department of jewellery and watches has selected a series of luxurious gems and precious stones for the exhibition, including a number of jade objects crafted from a rare Myanmar jade which was discovered in 2014 and weighed a whopping 233kg. Those with jewellery aficionados will also want to keep their sights set on the sapphires and rubies that will go under the hammer next week.

Holly’s International (HK) First Auction in Hong Kong
Preview Dates: 25-26 May (Saturday and Sunday)
Opening Hours: 10:00am–20:00pm
Auction Date: 27 May (Monday)
Auction Time: 11:00am
Venue: Grand Ballroom, Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, 1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai

Pink Diamond Feud: Giant pink diamond amps up multi-carat competition

In a move that must surely sour the day of the cash-flashers over at Harry Winston, their relatively recent claim to pink diamond supremacy already looks a little dated. Indeed, even though the eminent New York-headquartered jewellery house only secured the genuinely magnifico Winston Pink Legacy diamond a few short months ago, it is now set to be eclipsed by Graff Jewellers, with their London-based rival having unveiled the arguably-even-more-magnifico Graff Lesotho Pink.

The 18.96-carat Winston Pink Legacy pink diamond ring

Although a little lower on the carat count – 13.33 carats compared to Harry Winston’s 18.96 carats – with a price tag of US$8,750,360, the Graff gem wins out on the all-important per-carat price scale.

The newly-discovered 13.33-carat Graff Lesotho Pink

It would, however, seem that Graff’s long-term pink diamond victory is far from assured, with rumours already swirling that yet grander pinkly perfect specimens are set to be unearthed in Lesotho, the southern African nation that has become the goto source for such salmonesque stones. If that’s borne out, it could be that this latest spate of pink one-upmanship could, indeed, run and run.

Grand Oppurtunity: High ROI on Non-current currency

While most of us are only too adept at turning a US$1,000 into loose change after a weekend of wry abandonment, bill-paying and postponed indulgence, a fair rarer trick is transforming that same grand into US$1.9 million – an ROI of almost 2,000 percent. Sadly, there are few licit investment opportunities that guarantee such a splendid return – unless, of course, you are in possession of a rare 19th century US$1,000 bill, then it’s clearly a doddle…

Indeed, one venerable 130-year-old bit of currency performed just such a display of prestidigitation when it came up for sale courtesy of Stacks Bowers, the New York headquartered auction group. To be fair, its worth stemmed from two hard-to-dispute facts – only 1,500 of these particular bills were ever issued back in 1891, and of them, this is the only extant example in private hands. Even bearing its remarkable provenance in mind, however, the fact that it commanded a price of nearly US$2 million today is still more astounding in that, just 25 years ago, it was valued at no more than US$25,000.

High Flier: Unusually prized Belgian pigeon fetches US$1.4 million

If you only see pigeons as two-winged toxin factories, gliding germ generators with a mastery of in-flight infection, then the fact that a Chinese buyer has just spent more than US$1.4 million to secure the services of one may cause you some degree of bafflement. That, however, is the case.

More specifically, Armando, a Belgian racing pigeon of some renown, is the latest recruit to the all-star flock of some sadly anonymous mainland millionaire. In total, he spent US$1,408,518.78 on luring the clearly admirably aerodynamic Armando eastwards, which, as any fool will tell you, is more than triple the US$425,000 transfer fee secured by Nadine, the previously Highest-priced Pigeon of All Time.

Armando, though, is something very special. Bred in West Belgium and hailed as the tiny European country’s leading long-distance racer, he was reared by Joel Verschoot, apparently a legendary pigeon impresario. Given that Armando has been expertly schooled in winging it back home from wherever he’s released in record time, it could be that his oriental occupancy is, however, something of a brief one…

US$4.5 million bid for Fourteen Poems on Planting Bamboo by Li Dongyang

With 2019 looking set to be the Year of Reemerging Classical Chinese art, another venerable artefact from the Middle Kingdom’s golden era smashed expectations when it come up for auction at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong earlier this year. The collectible in question, Fourteen Poems on Planting Bamboo by Li Dongyang (1447–1516), dated back to the time of the Ming Dynasty and eventually changed hands for US$4.5 million – five times the original estimate.

For those wondering just how this handwritten scroll’s hefty price tag can be justified, a brief history lesson may prove enlightening. Li Donyang was something a distinguished fellow – a scholar, a poet, a painter a calligrapher and a holder of the highest level-imperial degree. Naturally highly regarded, his 14 poems run the length of the 10-metre scroll, with every character exquisitely calligraphed in the author’s distinctive cursive script. Even more impressively, it is virtually in mint condition, with only four characters said to have been lost in the five centuries since he sat down to work on it. A remarkable feat and one that, understandably, commanded a remarkable price.

Light Fantastic: Tiff Bidding for Tiffany’s Dragonfly Floor Lamp

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) wasn’t just any old member of the family that spawned Tiffany & Co., the New York-headquartered jewellery giant, he was also a successful artist and designer in his own right. His life-long passion for stained glass, blown glass, ceramics and, of course, jewellery, ultimately led the innovative entrepreneur to branch out in 1878 to launch Tiffany Studios, his own bespoke glass-making business. It proved to be an inspired move, with his company’s creative and multifaceted use of his chosen medium eventually seeing his products known the world over simply as Tiffany Glass.

Recently, one of the most elegant works ever to be created in his workshops featured as a headline lot at Sotheby’s The Geyer Collection: Masterworks of Tiffany and Pre-war Design Auction. Created around 1910, the piece – the Important Dragonfly Floor Lamp – was fashioned in vibrant red and orange cabochons and hemmed with stained Tiffany Glass dragonflies, with its lamp shade perched atop an unusual opalescent glass ball-accented stand. Given its rarity, beauty and provenance, it was perhaps unsurprising that the bidding finally peaked at US$675,000.

Must-have Mustangs: Premium horse embryos sold at Asia Horse Week

As Hong Kong geared up for the second iteration of The Asia Horse Week earlier this year, the organisers of this unique equine expo added a surprise item to the programme – Asia’s first-ever auction of premium horse embryos.

Run by Arqana, the renowned French auction house, this inaugural event had 18 premium in-utero lots on offer, each derived from some of the world’s most illustrious show jumping bloodlines. In addition to the hopeful purchasers gathered within AsiaWorld-Expo, buyers the world over were offered the chance to partake via the miracle of online bidding to secure their very own future equine champion.

Right from the off – and much to the delight of an enthusiastic in situ audience – the digital bids flooded in. The first lot (Eldorado Van De Zeshoek x Coriana Van Klapscheut [Darco]) sold to a Canadian buyer for 41,000 euros (HK$367,770), the largest single bid of the night. By close of play, all horse embryos had been successfully auctioned off, with the evening’s takings totalling more than 416,000 euros (HK$3.7 million).

Conveted Canvas: Record bid for Ammi Phillips’ Red-clad Girl

A truly iconic item of American folk art wowed would be bidders at Christie’s in New York when one of the most beautiful portraits ever completed by American painter Ammi Phillips (1788-1865) went under the gavel. Universally known as Girl in a Red Dress with a Dog, the work, with its powerful central image of a young girl clad in a vivid red gown gazing steadfastly out of the canvas, fetched a staggering US$1.69 million, vastly exceeding its pre-sale estimate.

The size of the winning bid is all the more spectacular given that Phillips was all but forgotten after his death. Even though a number of his works came to be widely appreciated in the early ’20s, they were not correctly attributed to him until 1958, when Mary Black, a renowned art historian, finally secured him the recognition that had long eluded him.

Part of his much-admired four-piece Children in Red series – a set of works that includes Girl in a Red Dress with Cat and Dog, his most celebrated portrait – the recent sale did indeed offer ‘a rare chance to acquire an undisputed masterpiece of American folk art’.

Auto Exotica: Speedy Sale for Lamborghini Miura ’70s Supercar

To describe the Lamborghini Miura as groundbreaking would be an understatement. This, after all, was the speedy Italian roadster that had single-handedly inspired the coining of the term ‘supercar’ when it debuted at the 1966 Geneva Salon. Five decades on, the few extant examples of this true embodiment of race-car royalty remain keenly sought out by admiring auto-enthusiasts. Indeed, their particular pre-eminence was underlined recently when a fully-restored 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV, styled by Italian motoring marque Bertone, went for an eye-watering sum at the Sotheby’s Petersen Automotive Museum Auction in Los Angeles.

One of just 150 Miura SVs ever created and one of just 30 vehicles to be fitted with Borletti air conditioning – something of a luxury back then – the car was previously owned by Claudio Zampolli, a former Lamborghini engineer and the founder of the now-defunct Cizeta motoring company. Lovingly restored to its original specifications, it also comes with an impressive racing pedigree of its very own. No wonder, then, that this resplendent scarlet speedster sold for a stunning US$2.18 million.

George Michael Collection Evening Auction grandest highlight

While not under the best of circumstances, no less, the art world was certainly treated earlier this month, to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as Christie‘s hosted the George Michael Collection Evening Auction in London earlier this month. The adored British pop-star who passed away 2016, was an avowed art collector and left behind an impressive collection of sculptors, paintings and modern art deco spanning over two decades.

Fellow Brit, Damien Hirst’s Incomplete Truth (b.1965) ended up being the most impressive lot of the night, by commanding a whopping US$1.2 million. Initially acquired by Michael’s in 2007, the sculptor presents a hovering dove, suspended in mid-flight in formaldehyde, within a 222 x 176 x 74cm glass cage. Doves, which symbolise the Holy Spirit as well as peace, are arguably in tune with Michael’s hit Gotta Have Faith, perhaps it’s what inspired him to acquire the unique suspension in the first place.