50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 823 A big gamble
Time flew by as Carlson gave his presentation, and the auction began promptly at 10:00 AM.

It must be said that Christie's really puts a lot of effort into its auctions; the auctioneer in charge of today's auction is actually a beautiful female auctioneer from India.

When the auctioneer walked out from backstage, the room fell silent for a moment, then erupted in a buzz of excitement.

The auctioneer was dressed in traditional Indian clothing, adorned with various glittering gold jewelry, her face veiled, and her nose decorated with gemstones.

Her large expanse of snow-white chest was covered by a string of gold ornaments, and an embroidered scarf was draped over her shoulders, revealing her slender waist, making her look like a reincarnation of the Jade Rabbit.

What's even more surprising is that this beautiful Indian auctioneer walked onto the stage barefoot, her gold anklets jingling as she moved.

If, at this moment, some fitting music were played and the beautiful Indian auctioneer were to dance to "The Girl from India," the atmosphere at the scene would likely become incredibly lively.

Seeing the atmosphere of the auction, Sun Zhiwei was immediately ignited by the auctioneer who had just taken the stage, and he was also amazed by Christie's creativity.

I don't know how they managed to find such a beautiful auctioneer of Indian descent in such a short time.

This is really not easy. As far as he knows, Christie's does not currently have an auction house in India.

With a better atmosphere, the auction went much more smoothly. In the first pre-auction session alone, a mid-range gold piece with a starting price of $500 million sold for five times that amount.

Seeing this setup, Sun Zhiwei and Carlson exchanged a glance and knew that today's auction was a sure thing.

If the final auction goes smoothly, Christie's "Golden Treasures" global auction will be considered a success.

Sun Zhiwei was worried about the final item in this auction, because his "Golden Elephant" was not participating, and the final item in this auction became a necklace.

After being unanimously identified by dozens of Christie's expert appraisers, a necklace in the collection was confirmed to be the Parthian Necklace, which disappeared from the Indian royal treasury in 1948.

The Patiala Necklace is a luxurious diamond necklace created in India in 1928, set with 2930 diamonds.

This includes a 234.65-carat De Beers diamond, which is considered one of the most luxurious pieces of jewelry ever made.

Experts believe that the De Beers diamond on this necklace is among the world's top ten diamonds.

Experts currently give the Patiala necklace a conservative estimate of $2.5 million, but Sun Zhiwei is clearly not satisfied with this valuation. He is still hoping that the grand finale of the auction will produce an upset.

But today we have a great-aunt here to keep things in check: Mrs. Diana. What if she takes a fancy to the Patiala necklace?
With such a powerful figure around, why bother filming? He might as well just remove it and give it to Old Wang for free, which would at least earn him a favor, and he might be able to earn even more in the future.

But there was nothing he could do to stop the auction from taking place. He could only look out at the bustling auction scene with a touch of melancholy.

The "Golden Treasure" auction will last for three days, with two sessions each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

With over 7000 lots in total, if all are sold at the reserve price, the total transaction amount will reach $1000 billion.

This auction was actually a high-stakes gamble, and Christie's used a lot of its connections to invite all the important clients they had accumulated over two centuries.

It's important to understand that every client Christie's accumulates represents a valuable network of contacts. If an auction fails to provide clients with satisfactory items, it can easily offend them. Generally, Christie's auctions don't invite too many high-profile clients, ensuring that a select few gain a competitive edge.

Christie's took such a huge risk by inviting so many heavyweight figures, firstly because Christie's CEO, Mitchell, had confidence in the lots to be auctioned.

Another reason is that they want to set a world record for auction this time.

It's important to know that Christie's isn't the only world-class auction house; its biggest competitor, Sotheby's, is already showing signs of surpassing it.

Sotheby's is their long-time rival; historically, Sotheby's was the world's first auction house.

Sotheby's was founded in 1744, more than 20 years earlier than Christie's, and both auction houses originated in London.

It can be said that Christie’s has faced competitive pressure from Sotheby’s since its inception.

The two auction houses have been rivals for over two hundred years, with each side having its share of victories and defeats.

Christie's auction prices are generally high, and its auction items are known for being high-end and rare, which has earned it high market recognition.

Sotheby's auction prices are relatively more accessible, and its auction items are known for their excellent quality and reasonable prices, attracting a large number of middle-class collectors.

In recent years, the wealth of the world's middle class has been increasing rapidly, and there are more and more newly rich people. Sotheby's customer growth has significantly surpassed Christie's, and Christie's is now under great pressure.

After acquiring the auction rights for "The Golden Treasure" from Sun Zhiwei, they mobilized almost all their resources to set a benchmark for Sotheby's single-session sales.

This left them with no desire to surpass Christie's, and in doing so, Christie's established itself as the only top-tier auction house in the auction industry.

Keep in mind that this is only the 3s. In the hundreds of years since the last auction, the total transaction price of a single auction has never exceeded three digits (tens of billions of US dollars), with the highest being only 15 billion US dollars.

This time, Christie's is prepared to push this record to the four-figure level (hundreds of billions of dollars).

If they succeed, Christie's will claim the sole crown in the auction industry, achieving an unparalleled status.

Sun Zhi was happy to see this happen, since this was his exclusive auction, and the higher the transaction amount, the more he would receive.

I just hope that this old lady Diana will be sensible and not be too greedy, and not force him to take action.

Although Grandma Diana looked very healthy, she was over sixty years old after all. Sun Zhiwei didn't even need to kill her; he could have made her leave the scene with just a little manipulation.

The four auctions on the first and second days went very smoothly, with the total sales exceeding three figures. Christie's position was firmly established, and even Chairman Carlson's tense expression relaxed.

Only Sun Zhiwei kept a close eye on Grandma Diana in the arena. This time bomb had only made a few moves in the past two days, and his behavior was very restrained.

But every time she participated in the bidding, the other clients would only raise their paddles a few times as a formality before giving the item to her.

(End of this chapter)