For the 10th anniversary of Fendi’s Baguette, 10 Hong Kong celebrities and artists were invited to customize the bag in their own personal styles, including Alan Chan, Rick Chi, Eason, Jan Lamb, Wingshya and glamourous Alice Chan… the bags are currently on display from 3rd April til 27th April @ Harbour City Gallery Hong Kong.

Krug, the French champagne house, has come up with a new way to attract luxury consumers by offering the world’s most expensive balloon rides, available in locations all over the world ; in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Tuscany, France – and Gloucestershire.

Besides the obvious trip up in a luxury balloon (gleaming hardware, basket lined with premium white leather) you also get gourmet dining complete with champagne and butler service while you’re in the air for a price tag of €50,000 for a group of up to 8 people.

Melted down, a gold Ming Dynasty bowl would sell for about $30,000, twice as much as four years ago. At a Hong Kong auction next month, the imperial vessel may fetch more than HK$60 million ($7.7 million), Sotheby’s said.

Inscribed with dragons and set with pearls, turquoise, rubies and sapphires, the three-legged vessel — made with 1.3 kilograms of 18K gold — is the highlight of Sotheby’s auction of more than 25 gold and precious-metal objects in Hong Kong on April 11, the New York-based auction house said. The lots may raise a combined HK$100 million, said Sotheby’s.[...]

“Timing couldn’t be better,” said Tian Kai, a Beijing- based art dealer. “Gold is all the rage right now.”

Sotheby’s Hong Kong was offered the consignment in mid- January, days before the cut-off date for assembling lots for the auction, said Nicolas Chow, the auction house’s head of Chinese ceramics and artworks. He declined to identify the seller. Several European and Asian private collectors have inquired about the consignment.

“Gold is the most comprehensive marker of luxury in ancient cultures, including the Ming Dynasty,” said Chow. “If fine porcelain from these eras could fetch record prices, there is no reason art made with costlier material couldn’t fare better.”

The record for a Qing ceramic was set in November 2006 when Hong Kong businesswoman Alice Cheng paid HK$151.3 million for a porcelain bowl at a Christie’s International auction. Several private collectors, including casino magnate Stanley Ho, have bought imperial artifacts at auction and donated them to China in the past few years. [...]

Read the full article on Bloomberg
To contact the reporters on this story: Le-Min Lim in Hong Kong at lmlim@bloomberg.net

72.22-carat diamond, so large it could fill a tablespoon, is expected to bring up to $13 million when it goes on the auction block next month.

Cut from an original rough diamond, the D-color, flawless gem is prized for its pear shape and GIA-graded excellent polish and symmetry.

D-color is actually colorless and considered the most highly valued. It was previewed in Manhattan on Monday and will be offered on April 10 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong galleries, which estimates its value at $10 million to $13 million.

The Mobile Art exhibition of Chanel will debut its worldwide tour in Hong Kong this month.

Resulting from a collaboration between Architect Zaha Hadid and Karl Lagerfeld this boundary-breaking project will tour from 2008 to 2010 from Hong Kong to Paris, Tokyo, New York, LA, London and finally Moscow.

The Chanel Contemporary Art Container – a collapsible, futuristic pavilion – is a celebration of Chanel’s cultural importance and displays the brand’s heritage in a new way.

Chanel commissioned fifteen internationally renowned contemporary artists to create works inspired by the iconic quilted Chanel 2.55 shoulder bag which was originally introduced by Coco Chanel in February 1955.

The Hong Kong InterContinental Hotel is internationally acclaimed as one of the world’s top hotels.

Managing Director Jean-Jacque Reibel gives an intensive tour of this prestigious hotel that also over looks the Hong Kong harbour on this video.