Rare whisky slips, but still tops Luxury Investment Index

Rare whisky unsurprisingly still led KFLII by some margin at the end of Q1 2019 following its introduction into the index at the end of last year. 

No other asset class comes close to the 12-month or ten-year growth of the Knight Frank Rare Whisky Index, compiled for us by Rare Whisky 101, and which we use to track the price growth of investment-grade Scotch.

A bottle of 60-year-old The Macallan, one of only 12 with a label designed by the pop artist Peter Blake, made over £615,000 when it was auctioned by Bonhams in March. A huge amount for a single bottle, but some way off the £751,703 achieved by the same auctioneer in Hong Kong last year.

Overall, the value of our whisky index also fell slightly in the first three months of the year, according to Andy Simpson of Rare Whisky 101. “We’ve had massive oversupply in the market, but supply looks significantly down going into May so I don’t think this is the beginning of a significant slide in values.”

Art

Of the more mainstream assets within KFLII art was the next top-performing asset class, with the value of the Art Market Research World index rising by 12% over the past 12 months. This year has already seen some records tumble. 

Meules, one of Monet’s celebrated Haystacks series, became the first impressionist work of art to break the $100m barrier when it went under the hammer for just under $111m at Sotheby’s Modern Art and Impressionist evening sale in New York in May. A number of other works also fetched tens of millions of dollars.

A few days later, also in New York, Rabbit, a sculpture by Jeff Koons, overtook the $90m record for a living artist set by David Hockney last year with Portrait of an Artist, when it was sold at the Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Sale for just over $91m.

Classic cars

Growth at the top of the classic car market as tracked by HAGI may not have gone into reverse just yet, but it has certainly dropped down a few gears after a period of very strong growth with several of this year’s auction sales offering vendors lukewarm results. “I think the Monterey sales later in the year will provide a more definitive view of where the market might be heading,” says HAGI founder Dietrich Hatlapa.

However, rare cars are still making big money. A Ferrari 250 GTO is reported to have sold privately for $50 to $60m, while a lovely 1939 Alfa Romeo 2900B Lungo Touring Berlinetta was the top selling car at auction so far this year when it made €16.7m at Artcurial’s Paris sale in February.

The market for iconic “youngtimer” vehicles is also buoyant. A collection of Lancia rally cars at RM Sotheby’s first auction in Germany at Techno Classica Essen, attracted strong bidding with a 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Stradale breaking the €1m barrier, a new world record by some margin.

Wine

Wine is also in a period of uncetainty, according to Nick Martin of Wine Owners, which compiles the Knight Frank Fine Wine Icons Index. “The market is unclear of which direction to go in at this point. On the one hand Brexit-pummelled sterling makes the enormous wine reserves held in the UK cheaper to overseas buyers. On the other, the biggest export market, China, is responding to tariff uncertainty with reduced levels of spend.”

Coloured gemstones

Coloured gemstones continue to outperform the wider jewellery market. At Bonham’s London Sale at the end of April several lots blew away their estimates. The top performer was a 17.43 Kashmir sapphire ring, formerly owned by a European noble family, that fetched £723,063, far exceeding its £300,000 to £400,000 guide price.

The second highest performing lot was a diamond and sapphire transformable necklace by Spanish jeweller Grassy. Dated to around 1935 and featuring a 34.59 carat Sri Lankan (no heat) sapphire, the necklace sold for £287,562 against its pre-sale estimate of £120,000-180,000.  

Main image by Steve McCurry, courtesy of The Macallan