To commemorate Bottega Veneta’s opening of a new boutique in Taipei, the luxury designer will come out with a limited edition knot handbag.

Named the Taipei Knot, this handbag will available exclusively through the new store; only 50 will be produced.

Sporting shades of york, cigar, and truffle the patchwork of the handbag comprises 25 separate pieces of leather.

The bags are inscribed with the words “Taipei 2010” on a sterling plate inside the clutch, and will be on sale exclusively at the Bellavita store.

Prices for antiques in China have risen sharply over the past five years and now galleries all over the world over are waiting for the nation’s cashed-up collectors to spread the wealth overseas.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Netherlands’ Tefaf Maastricht, New York gallery director James Hennessy said that internationally things were looking up in the antique market, but all eyes were on China.

“Business is better than last year,” Hennessy told the Bloomberg news agency.

“The market for Chinese art expands with the Chinese economy. There are thousands of collectors in mainland China who are seeking out works in the West.

China‘s seemingly unquenchable thirst for wine has ousted America as Bordeaux’s number one client outside Europe, latest figures showed Friday.

With overall exports down a large 23 percent in 2009, vintners are now looking to the East to drain their cellars.

“China has become our first client outside the European Union,” said Alain Vironneau, president of the CIVB, Bordeaux’s wine trade body, in a press conference, hailing both Hong Kong and China as “dynamic”.

China’s buying power comes at a particularly opportune moment as France’s leading wine region struggles to survive the economic crisis.

Shanghai Tang is the first luxury brand from China with a mission to revitalize Chinese sartorial heritage by combining Shanghainese tailoring traditions with innovative modern shapes that are easily wearable in the urban landscape today.

China’s ever-growing taste for luxury goods is extending into the culinary world — and that’s good news for Jean-Marie Vallier, who runs a duck farm and foie gras factory outside Beijing.

Two years ago, French group Euralis — the world leader in foie gras production — invested 2.7 million dollars in the facilities, aimed at producing the delicacy for high-end restaurants under the Rougie brand.

As the tastes and budgets of China’s growing middle class expand, so does the demand for upmarket Western fare served in chic venues, and Vallier is well-placed to profit from the fledgling gourmet revolution.

The 4,000th Murcielago was recently completed at the Sant’Agata Bolognese factory where Lamborghini celebrated the occasion.

Lamborghini only made 2,900 models of the previous V12 model, the Diablo, over eleven years of production.

The lightweight 670-hp Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce, carrying series number 4,000, will be delivered to the company’s showroom in Hangzhou.