Quote:The wave of Chinese money that has crashed through the markets for fine wine, art and antiques is now flooding into the altogether sleepier world of stamp collecting.
At an auction in Hong Kong this week, a rare block of four stamps from the Cultural Revolution sold for HK$8,970,000 (US$1.1m) – an all-time record for a Chinese stamp or multiple. Including a 15 per cent buyer's fee, the anonymous buyer paid over US$1.3m for the stamps.
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e2b82a06-...xzz1FxQ7g878The series of stamps feature a design known as the 1968 Mao's Inscription to Japanese Worker Friends.
The stamps are particularly rare because the Chinese government never issued them for fear of causing anger among the Japanese population.
The 3,000-lot Hong Kong auction has sent ripples of excitement through the stamp collecting world because it raised a total of HK$98.7m, almost double the pre-sale estimate of HK$50m.
"The market has exploded – there's no other way to put it," said Jeffrey Schneider, founder of Interasia Auctions, the stamp specialist which handled the sale.
Posted 03/07/2011 5:58 pm
