Billionaire's 25,000 wine bottles go to auction for up to $50 million combined
Sotheby's called the wine bottle group 'by far the largest and most valuable ever to come to market'
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About 25,000 wine bottles owned by a billionaire will become available in a planned auction series, and their collective sales are expected to bring in an eye-popping amount.
Taiwanese billionaire Pierre Chen owns the massive amount of bottles set for auction as part of "The Epicurean’s Atlas," according to Sotheby’s. The auction house on Wednesday pegged their collective sale value at up to an estimated $50 million.
The estimated values of the lots vary, with two Domaine de la Romanee-Conte La Tache Methuselahs that could potentially come in the $120,000-$190,000 each range and a 2017 Domaine Faiveley Musigny Grand Cru Magnum could sell for $11,000-$15,000, for example, according to a press release from the auction house.
Sotheby’s described the group of wine bottles as "by far the largest and most valuable ever to come to market."
The logo of the auction house Sotheby's is displayed on the facade of the Rue Faubourg St Honore shop in Paris on June 17, 2019. (Chesnot / Getty Images)
The auctioning off of the 25,000 bottles will run between November of this year and November 2024, using five separate auctions, starting with one in Hong Kong. That November auction will provide a "broader sense of the scope and quality" of the "encyclopaedic" wine collection, according to Sotheby’s.
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Wine types and regions will serve as the themes of subsequent auctions in Paris; Beaune, France; New York; and again Hong Kong.
Chen has been collecting the bottles for over four decades. In the context of his entire wine collection, the 25,000 bottles are "just a fraction," the auction house said.
"To me, wine is the 9th art. It is the only art form one can consume, using senses that other art forms don’t typically involve, such as one’s taste and smell, and it requires creativity on the part of the owner," he said in the press release.
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"When it comes to collecting, understanding and appreciating wine, Pierre Chen is in a league of his own," said George Lacey, head of Sotheby's Wine, Asia. "The extent of his cellar is staggering both in volume and range — a testament both to his constant pursuit of the best, and to his deep appreciation of the winemakers who excel in their profession."
Chen has worked with Sotheby’s in the past, selling over 360 lots of wine bottles worth millions of dollars in a 2021 auction.
The billionaire’s wealth stems from the electronics industry, according to Forbes. The outlet reported his net worth stood at about $5.4 billion as of Thursday.
In addition to wine, Chen has an art collection that "rank[s] among the greatest in the world," according to Sotheby’s.
Pierre Chen, chairman of Yageo Corp., speaks at the opening ceremony of a plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China, on Oct. 29, 2007. (Kevin Lee/Bloomberg via / Getty Images)
Yageo Corp., the electronics components company he founded, has a market capitalization of about $6.89 billion.
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On an annual basis, Sotheby’s operates about 250 auctions that span categories such as art, jewelry, sneakers, furniture, manuscripts and more, according to its website.