Jakarta –
Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau is selling his collection of dozens of luxury bags at auction. There were 77 bags worth a total of USD 3.2 million or around IDR 48.7 billion.
Joseph Lau is auctioning his bag online through Sotheby’s auction agency. The luxury bag collection consists of one Chanel bag and 76 Hermes bags.
One of the rare Hermes bags that was auctioned was the Bleu Jean Shiny Porosus Crocodile Birkin 25 which was released in 2006. The bag, decorated with 18-carat white gold and diamonds, sold for USD 190,000 or around Rp. 2.9 billion.
There is also a collection of limited edition Hermes bags by Jean-Paul Gaultier, who served as the French brand’s creative director, from 2004 to 2010. Other items that have sold well at auction so far include six Hermes Birkins set in diamonds and one Hermes Kelly in color. Very rare metallic bronze.
As quoted from Nextshark, some of the proceeds from the auction, which will be held from January 30 to February 9, 2023, will be donated to charity. Joseph Lau is scheduled to sell his bag collection again in July 2023.
The 71-year-old entrepreneur has reportedly purchased more than 1,500 Hermes bags in his lifetime. Currently his 1,000 bags are kept by his family.
Apart from luxury bags, Joseph Lau is also known to like collecting paintings, luxury goods and expensive wines. He is the owner of a number of famous paintings such as “Mao” by Andy Warhol and “Everything Must Go” by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Former chairman of Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd. this is one of the 10 richest people in Hong Kong. But in 2012, he was charged with bribery and money laundering so that the Macau government would sell his land to make it into a casino.
After denying it, Joseph Lau was eventually found guilty of the charge. Even so, he was never detained or served time because there was no extradition treaty between Macau and Hong Kong.
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