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Christie’s Record-Setting 5.5ct Diamond, a $100-Million Rothko on Sale, Very Expensive Whisky Problems at Bonhams & More

This week’s dispatch covers record-breaking auctions, a Florentine hillside resurrection, the world’s most elegant car show, and more.
May 15, 2026
Classic red and vintage blue race cars parked along a railing at night by a lake, illuminated with blue ground lights under a large tree.
The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este returns to Lake Como, bringing together some of the world’s rarest historic automobiles for a weekend of design, craftsmanship, and collector-car theatre. Photo: BMW Group

This week, the room is expensive and the light is good.

Sotheby’s opens spring auction season with a Rothko expected to fetch up to $100 million. Christie’s Geneva closed a record-setting blue-green diamond at $17.3 million. Belmond brought a Renaissance convent back to life above Florence. Lake Como is about to become the world’s most beautiful traffic jam. Eight lucky photographers are heading to Patagonia. And Bonhams Hong Kong is giving collectors a two-bottle problem with no easy answer.

The $100 Million Rothko Anchoring Sotheby’s Biggest Week of the Year

Abstract red painting featuring two dark rectangular blocks, one near the top and one near the bottom, creating a vertical composition.
The Rothko in question. Photo: Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s is kicking off spring auction season with the Modern and Contemporary Sales open at the Breuer on May 14, headlined by Robert Mnuchin: Collector at Heart, a single-owner evening sale estimated above $130 million. The crown jewel is a Mark Rothko titled “Brown and Blacks in Reds,” expected to land somewhere between US$70 and US$100 million. The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction, on the other hand, follows with Warhol’s Brigitte Bardot, de Kooning’s “Untitled III,” and a major Basquiat waiting in the wings.

More information here.

This Blue-Green Diamond Just Sold for $17.3 Million

Teal pear-shaped gemstone set in a halo of large square-cut diamonds on a silver ring
Christie’s Ocean Dream, a 5.5-carat fancy vivid blue-green diamond, sold for $17.3 million in Geneva, more than doubling its 2014 sale price and easily clearing its presale estimate. The result looked even sharper beside Sotheby’s 6-carat fancy vivid blue diamond, which failed to sell the day before. Photo: Christie’s

Christie’s Geneva didn’t need a lot of lots to have a big week. The Ocean Dream—a 5.5-carat triangular-cut diamond and, by all accounts, the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond ever to come to auction—sold for CHF 13.5 million, roughly $17.3 million, and blew past its CHF 7 to 10 million estimate without breaking a sweat. Found in Central Africa in the 1990s, the stone had been waiting for the right room. Suffice it to say, it found one.

Belmond’s Florentine Hillside Escape Just Got Its Best Renovation in Centuries

Villa with ivy-covered wall and a manicured garden overlooking a valley and distant city skyline, with red chaise lounges on the lawn.
Photo: Belmond

Villa San Michele has been watching Florence from the hills of Fiesole for centuries. After 18 months, Belmond’s former Renaissance convent is back with 39 reimagined rooms, a Spa by Guerlain, refreshed terraced gardens, wellness programming with La DoubleJ, and Antesi—an eight-table restaurant led by Chef Alessandro Cozzolino. The old stones remain. They’ve just been joined by Cipollino marble and the kind of polish that makes history feel newly expensive.

The World’s Most Beautiful Car Show Returns to Lake Como

Red vintage race car on a trailer with its large front grille visible, driver in goggles in the cockpit, lush green background.
Last year’s “Best of Show” Photo: BMW

Lake Como has seen a lot of elegance. This week it gets 50 historic automobiles to match. The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este runs May 15 to 17, with BMW Group Classic and Villa d’Este staging one of the collector-car world’s most refined rituals—prewar opulence, speed-dressed 1930s machinery, extravagant 1950s coachwork, all competing for the Trofeo BMW Group Best of Show. Public days at Villa Erba, a racing exhibition, and two BMW world premieres round it out.

More information here.

andBeyond Is Taking Eight People to Patagonia

Snow-capped mountains under a grey sky with an orange autumn forest in the foreground.] ,Oops
Photo: Timothy Fall/andBeyond.com

andBeyond’s new eight-day photographic expedition hits Patagonia in April 2027, which will be limited to eight guests, led by photographer and filmmaker Timothy Dhalleine. The itinerary moves through Torres del Paine, Pucón, and the Araucanía region, with viewpoints above Grey Glacier, flights over volcanic landscapes, and a final Lightroom session at andBeyond Vira Vira Lodge.

Read more here.

A Very Expensive Problem for Japanese Whisky Collectors

Three wooden whiskey boxes with two bottles in front, set against a dark backdrop. One bottle labeled in Japanese rests on the left, a larger bottle on the right.
A rare pairing of Japanese whisky royalty: Yamazaki 50-Year-Old and Karuizawa 52-Year-Old Cask #5627, 1960 “Treasure Ship,” both heading to auction at Bonhams Hong Kong on May 30. Photo: Bonhams

Bonhams Hong Kong is offering a very specific kind of trouble on May 30. First, a Yamazaki 50-Year-Old made exclusively for Club Natsume, signed by Master Blender Shinji Fukuyo, is estimated at HK$2.8 to 4.2 million. Beside it, the Karuizawa 52-Year-Old Cask #5627 “Treasure Ship,” the oldest Karuizawa ever released, one of just 41 bottles, estimated at HK$2.2 to 3.2 million. One closed distillery, one custom Suntory commission.

Place your bids here.

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