The top French diplomat in Hong Kong and Macau was suspended and recalled to Paris last week for stealing two expensive bottles of wine, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Tuesday.
Marc Fonbaustier, 46, France's consul-general in the Chinese semi-autonomous territories, was forced to leave his job after Beijing sought his removal, just over a year after taking the top-ranking post, the source said.
Police and the French consulate in Hong Kong both declined comment Tuesday. "We stand by the statement of the spokesman for the foreign ministry last week," a consulate spokeswoman told AFP.
On Thursday, the foreign ministry said an "administrative investigation" had begun, adding that Fonbaustier's unspecified actions would "likely not meet the requirements of professional conduct for a French diplomat."
"He is suspended from duty," ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.
"An administrative investigation has been started based on the circumstances behind the decision.
"These facts would likely not meet the requirements of professional conduct for a French diplomat," the spokesman added.
Fonbaustier, who is married with three children, is an alumnus of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, France's top school for civil servants. He is a former second counsellor at the French embassy in New Delhi.
France's top HK diplomat 'recalled for stealing wine'
Krug Pops, Art Records Fall as Chinese Lift $76 Million Auction
“I’m only really drinking this for promotional purposes you understand,” said David Elswood, Christie’s International’s international head of wine, as he sipped a glass of Krug before accepting bids for a package of 144 bottles from the Champagne maker.
Krug representatives poured magnums of the company’s Grande Cuvee and served dim sum and Danish pastries to bidders scattered around 10 tables at the start of a weekend that also offered contemporary art in Hong Kong. Chinese-led bidding pushed the total for the three days to HK592.7 million ($76.3 million) as 15 artist records were set.
The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre sale is part of a weeklong event covering wine, contemporary art, traditional Chinese paintings, watches, jewelry and antiques. Together with Sotheby’s autumn sale in October, they indicate the strength of demand for luxury items in Asia.
On Saturday morning, two phone bidders pushed the price of the Krug cases to HK$1.2 million including a first-class trip for two to Krug’s famous cellars in France.
London-based Christie’s sold HK$80.3 million of wine over two days, with a collection of 43 bottles of Chateau Mouton- Rothschild also reaching HK$1.2 million. By bottle, the highest price was a half case of 1978 Echezeaux Burgundy for the equivalent of HK$124,000 a bottle. A case of 1990 La Tache from nearby Domaine de la Romanee-Conti fetched HK$78,000 a bottle.
Star Items
With the Champagne and tables cleared away, Christies began its three-day offering of contemporary and 20th century Asian art, with most of the star items at the Nov. 27 evening sale.
Around packed rows of white seats, ushers gave up trying to keep aisles clear of standing observers that spilled six deep outside the entrances, while 48 Christie’s staff aided telephone bidders. Two of those phone bidders outlasted the sea of dark suits and black dresses in the room to lift Sanyu’s “Potted Chrysanthemum in a Blue and White Jardiniere” to an artist record HK$53.3 million.
The Chinese-born artist, who was reputedly more interested in Parisian nightlife than selling his works during his life, was the high point of the 44-lot evening. By contrast, the other lot with a HK$35 million presale estimate, Cai Guo Qiang’s 32- meter wide “Search for Extraterrestrials” in Chinese ink, smoke and gunpowder on paper, failed to sell after hammering down at HK$30 million, below the reserve price.
Estimates Beaten
The two lots set the tone for the day sale yesterday, with works by artists such as Liu Dahong soaring past their estimates, while buyers were lukewarm on lesser works by established stars like Yue Minjun. Liu’s “The Meeting Hall,” one of the first lots of the afternoon session, set a record for the artist of HK$2.8 million, more than 10 times its estimate.
Zeng Fanzhi’s “A Man in Melancholy,” Sunday’s top lot, sold for HK$10.3million, more than six times its estimate, while Zao Wou-Ki, star of the spring sales this year, remained popular with all nine of his works on offer beating their high estimates.
Yesterday’s 8 1/2-hour sale of more than 400 lots brought the total for the Asian contemporary and 20th century Chinese art to HK$512.4 million, 32 percent higher than a year ago.
Seven artist records fell in the Nov. 27 evening session, with Asian buyers or dealers taking 9 of the top 10 lots. Another eight records fell in the day sale.
Sotheby’s October sale in Hong Kong totaled HK$3.09 billion, more than 50 percent higher than its previous record in the city of HK$2 billion set in April.
Christie’s sale prices on art include a commission of 25 percent on the first HK$400,000, 20 percent up to and including HK$8 million, and 12 percent of the remainder, paid by the buyer. Estimates are for the hammer price, which doesn’t include the commission. For wine, the commission is a flat 20 percent.
Today, Christie’s continues with Southeast Asian contemporary art and jewels.
Hong Kong $230,000 Bid Overtakes London-New York Wine Auctions
He Wei Qi, a businessman from eastern China’s Zhejiang province, says he routinely pays more than 30,000 yuan ($4,500) for a bottle of wine to entertain guests.
“A price tag of more than a million yuan a bottle -- that does more than show off your wealth, it shows you have good taste,” He, 38, said while attending a three-day Hong Kong wine and spirits exhibition that drew about 700 companies from 29 countries and regions. “We don’t care how outrageously expensive the wines are.”
Wine sales in the city by Sotheby’s and Christie’s International will raise more than in New York and London combined this year, the top two auction houses said, with vintage Chateau Lafite selling in excess of $200,000 a bottle. Sales at Hong Kong’s auctions have more than quadrupled since the city cut duties to zero two years ago.
“What we’ve seen emerging in the last year are people paying virtually any price for wine,” said David Elswood, Christie’s London-based head of wine. “That’s not investment. That is just uncontrolled spending.”
Buyers from China, where the number of billionaires rose more than 60 percent from last year, may double auction sales in Hong Kong next year, he said.
“Red wine is better than stocks,” wine merchant Alex Yu said while touting a HK$80,000 ($10,321) 5-litre bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild. “Chinese wine lovers are pushing up prices.”
Vintage Lafite
Three bottles of Chateau Lafite’s 1869 vintage sold for a record $230,000 each on Oct. 29, 28 times Sotheby’s top estimate before the auction.
Chinese collectors in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan hold about one in four bottles of fine or rare vintage wine globally, according to Crown Wine Cellars, which stores about HK$1 billion of wine in a network of converted ammunition bunkers in Hong Kong. Total consumption has doubled in China in the past five years, with red wine accounting for 75 percent of demand, according to a March report by Citigroup Inc.
Wine isn’t the only product Chinese buyers are mopping up. The fastest growth of any major economy and an appreciating currency have led them to pick up properties in London and artwork in New York. In Hong Kong, mainland Chinese demand drove luxury property prices past the 1997 peak, spurring the government to warn of an asset bubble.
1,400 Percent Markup
Asia’s wine market will expand four times faster than the rest of the world, said Robert Beynat, chief executive of wine exhibition organizer Vinexpo Asia Pacific. Much of the growth will come from China, which is the final destination of a “large part” of the wine imported into Hong Kong, he said.
Liu Xue Biao, a wine merchant from Shenzhen, said that wine he buys in Hong Kong for about $3 a bottle can be sold in mainland China for 300 yuan, a 1,400 percent markup. “They are willing to pay just about any price,” said Liu, accompanied by two female assistants carrying suitcases for their purchases.
Imports by Hong Kong merchants jumped to $600 million in the first nine months, more than the whole of last year. The value of auctions reached $120 million this year, almost double the $64 million in 2009, according to the government.
Sotheby’s had to issue tickets for the first time for its Oct. 29 wine auction at the Mandarin Oriental, when it offered almost 2,000 bottles of Lafite shipped directly from the Bordeaux chateau’s cellars.
No Catching Up
The sale beat the auction record for a single bottle set in 1985 in London, when publisher Malcolm Forbes paid 105,000 pounds ($169,000) for a 1787 vintage.
“New York and London aren’t going to catch up,” said Robert Sleigh, who moved to Hong Kong from New York in August to run Sotheby’s Asia wine business. “People like the fact that the wine is here in Hong Kong. You just go and pick it up.”
Sotheby’s next wine auctions in Hong Kong will take place in January, where it will put on sale the Bordeaux Winebank Collection. The highlights include bottles of Chateau Petrus 2000 and Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2000.
Sotheby’s sold $52 million of wine in eight auctions this year in Hong Kong compared with a combined $24 million so far in New York and London, previously the world’s biggest- and second- largest markets. The New York-based company had 11 consecutive sold-out wine auctions in the Chinese city.
The Hong Kong sales are an indication of how far mainland Chinese buyers have come since the 1990s, when they would drink Coca-Cola with wine and merchants hawked unwanted vintages to them, said Gregory De’Eb, general manager of Crown Wine Cellars.
“Through their own aggressive tasting, they have built a better knowledge of what suits their palettes,” De’Eb said.
‘Inflating a Bubble’
While the Chinese are the ninth-largest consumers of wine globally, the spirit accounts for only 2 percent of alcohol drunk in the country, according to Citigroup analysts.
That’s changing as wine starts to win favor compared with the traditional Baijiu and Maotai liquor. In 2008, Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) agreed to develop more than 25 hectares of vines in Shandong province with Citic Group, China’s biggest state-owned investment company.
The burgeoning wealth is “inflating a bubble” in wine, said Christie’s Elswood. “When you’re paying four, five times or even more than the reference price then you have to seriously question the market knowledge of that buyer.”
At Sotheby’s April 3 auction in Hong Kong, a 12-bottle lot of Chateau Latour 1982 fetched HK$338,800 or $43,649. About two weeks later, New York-based Tribeca Wine Merchants Ltd. ran a newspaper advertisement offering the same for $2,250 a bottle.
“Westerners drink wine slowly as a way of enjoying life,” said He, strolling around the Hong Kong exhibition holding a glass of wine. “Just look around you. Mainland Chinese tilt the glass and pour it straight down the throat.”
New South Wales Exhibits at the Hong Kong International Wine Fair 2010
Australia's premier winegrowing and winemaking state, New South Wales, returned today for its second consecutive exhibition at Asia's largest fine wine trade fair, the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair.
NSW was the most awarded state from the largest exhibiting country, Australia, at the 2009 Fair, winning 13 medals in the Fair's International Wine and Spirit Competition (inclusive of the first place Trophy for Best Cabernet Sauvignon). Eric Roozendaal, NSW Government Treasurer and Minister for State and Regional Development said, "New South Wales' outstanding performance in the 2009 Hong Kong International Wine Competition demonstrated not only the quality but the suitability of NSW wine in the mainland China-Hong Kong market. The government wishes this year's entrants good luck in the competition, and in introducing even more Asian wine lovers to our fantastic NSW wines."
Representing NSW at this year's Fair are ten of the State's most awarded and unique wineries: Ascella Pure Wines (Hunter Valley), Audrey Wilkinson Vineyard (Hunter Valley), Belgravia Wines (Orange Region), Brokenwood Wines (Hunter Valley), Calais Estate Wines (Hunter Valley), Chalkers Crossing (Hilltops Region), Mayfield Vineyard (Orange Region), Mudgee Wines (Mudgee Region), Printhie (Orange Region), and Ross Hill Wines (Orange Region). Amongst this all-star delegation are James Halliday 5-Star rated wineries, national trophy winners and iconic Australian producer-exporters.
The NSW Government has provided energetic export development support to the state's wineries through Industry & Investment NSW's "Wine to China" strategy. The strategy, initiated in 2009 and building on significant foundations already established in Asia, includes two annual wine-industry trade missions. When combined with NSW's permanent trade development offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou, the "Wine to China" strategy reinforces a continued presence in the marketplace for excellent NSW wine producers.
At this year's Hong Kong wine fair, a large number of pre-qualified buyers will be meeting NSW wineries at the Fair's Australian Pavilion. These trade buyers, from Beijing, Xian, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan, Kunming, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Taiwan, Macau, Seoul and beyond, will be given unparalleled opportunities to meet, in most cases, the principals and winemakers of the exhibiting wineries.
