Hong Kong Billionaire Joseph Lau Auctions Hermès Bags For Just Over $3 Million

Joseph Lau has sold a collection of 77 luxury handbags—the majority of which were Hermès designs collected over many years—through an online auction hosted by Sotheby’s, netting $3.2 million for the real estate billionaire, according to Bloomberg calculations.

The sale, which features limited edition pieces from Jean-Paul Gaultier, who was creative director of Hermès from 2004 to 2010, is the “largest single-owner handbag sale in Asia,” Sotheby’s said in an online post. Lasting from January 30 to February 9, the lineup included 76 Hermès handbags and just one from Chanel, with many of the bags fetching prices higher than their pre-sale estimates.

A 2006 Bleu Jean Shiny Porosus Crocodile Birkin with 18K white gold and diamond hardware was sold for more than HK$1.5 million ($190,000)—making it the most expensive item at the auction, results posted by Sotheby’s show. Another 2014 Bleu Electrique Shiny Porosus Crocodile Birkin sold for a final price north of HK$1 million, topping the upper end of its previously estimated price range of HK$500,000 to HK$700,000.

Part of the proceeds raised will be donated to charity, Sotheby’s said without disclosing the actual figure. A representative for Joseph Lau didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

But the 71-year-old former chairman of property developer Chinese Estate, who currently has a net worth of $13.2 billion and ranks the eighth-richest person in Hong Kong, has more luxury offerings on the way. Another auction featuring his handbag collection is scheduled for July 2023, according to Sotheby’s.

Although details of the forthcoming sale have yet to be revealed, Lau is known for his extensive collection of art, luxury items and fine wines. Art pieces owned by the mogul—including Andy Warhol’s iconic portrait of Communist Party leader Mao Zedong—are estimated to have a value of more than $1 billion.

But recently, Lau has also been auctioning off many items from his collections as his real estate business has been buffeted by a confluence of events, perhaps most notably, the company’s investments in the now defaulted property developer China Evergrande Group, which is a headed by Lau’s friend and longtime business associate Hui Ka Yan. Evergrande is now mired in a prolonged restructuring of its whopping $305 billion in total liabilities.

Last year, Lau offloaded more than $20 million worth of rare wine and Chinese porcelain. The majority of his wealth is now derived from prime real estate holdings in Hong Kong. Lau was convicted of bribery and fraud in Macau in 2014, although he was never imprisoned because there is currently no extradition agreement between Macau and the Asia financial hub.