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Sotheby’s 2011 wine sales bring $85.5 million

LONDON.- Sotheby’s Wine auctions in 2011 brought an overall global total of US$85,467,096; this is almost equal to last year’s figure of $88.27 million. The 2011 figure is the second highest in the company’s forty-one years of wine auctions. This year, 23 wine auctions were held worldwide, comprising 13 in London, six in Hong Kong and four in New York. The sales saw a strong average sell through rate by value of 96%. London wine sales realised a combined total of $27,191,060, the highest annual total in Sotheby’s forty-one years of wine sales in London, an increase of 30% on the 2010 total of $20.97 million. Hong Kong wine sales brought $44,737,594 and New York wine sales $13,538,442. Serena Sutcliffe MW, Worldwide Head of Wine at Sotheby’s said: “This is a great worldwide result, the second highest total of Sotheby’s wine history and, for London sales, the highest total ever achieved since the s