Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) — Albert Frere, a Belgian billionaire, is planning to sell more of his private wine cellar to boost a charity named for his son who died in a car crash 10 years ago.
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) — Albert Frere, a Belgian billionaire, is planning to sell more of his private wine cellar to boost a charity named for his son who died in a car crash 10 years ago.
Frere, 83, is expecting to raise as much as 983,480 pounds ($1.6 million) with the sale of more than 3,000 bottles of Bordeaux and Champagne. The Sept. 23 London event will be the third held by Sotheby’s to benefit the Charles-Albert Frere Foundation, which supports children in difficulty and disadvantaged adults.
“Frere buys straight from the chateaux and stores his wines in the cellar of his home in Belgium,” James Reed, a director in Sotheby’s London-based wine department, said in an interview. “His contacts in the wine trade are second to none and his stocks of great wine don’t seem to have a bottom.”
Sales by the world’s wealthy have been helping charities and bringing rare items to auction. Art from the collection of the late designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge raised 342.5 million euros ($490 million) in February by Christie’s International to benefit HIV charities; a second sale, also in Paris, may fetch 4 million euros on Nov 17-19.
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