Bonhams, a privately owned British auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of valuables antiques, made a new world record when it sold a bottle The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 for $1.1 million on Oct. 3.
With the Wednesday sale, Bonhams now holds the record for three of the most valuable bottles of whiskey ever sold at auction. The previous world record for a whiskey was also sold by Bonham in May and it was also a bottle of The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 for $1 million in Hong Kong.
The whiskey was aged in sherry casks in 1926, bottled in 1986, and was initially sold for $27,000 during its first release. The particular bottle sold on Wednesday was bought at the distillery in 1994 for an undisclosed amount before being auctioned during Bonhams Whisky Sale in Edinburgh. It was number 5 out of 12 bottles signed by world-famous 20th Century pop artist, Valerio Adami. It is with this rich history and artistic value that the bottle was touted as the "Holy Grail" of whiskeys.
Italian Valerio Adami is famous for painting bold, flatforms outlined in thick, black lines, a style similar to the comic art of today.
The auctioned whiskey was elegantly presented in a commissioned liquor cabinet of Tantalus, based on the traditional 'Brass and Glass' distillery spirit safe, Bonhams said in a statement.
While there were 12 bottles of The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926, Bonhams said it is no longer known how many of them still exist today. Some of it may have been already consumed by their first buyers or others are probably being kept in collection anonymously. One is suspected to have been destroyed in an earthquake in Japan in 2011 while another one was confirmed to have been opened and drunk.
CNN reported that the winning bid for the "Holy Grail" of whiskey was by a private collector who called from Asia. The anonymous buyer closed the sales over the phone.
Martin Green, Bonhams' auction specialist, told CNN that they think of The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 also as the Rolls Royce of malts. After the auction, they do not really know what the buyer will do with the bottle. He said anyone who has such purchasing power could also afford to drink it for simple pleasure. At the same time, the bottle is an art form may also find a place in a museum.
One thing is for sure though according to Green: the buyer is among one of the world's passionate and genuine whiskey collector that waited patiently for decades to buy the "perfect whiskey."
