asia

New Record for Asian Art

A new sales record for art sold in Asia was set when a woman at a Christie's Hong Kong auction paid $19.4 million (£10 million) for a small Qing dynasty bowl. Bizarrely, the woman's brother, who is known to have one of the world's best collections of Chinese art, offered the bowl at the auction. This brings up the question as to whether the woman and her brother planned for this to be the outcome of the auction, although why one would set out with the intent to set an auction bidding record remains to be seen. The woman said that she had not expected to buy the bowl; it was a "spur-of-the-moment decision" and that "[her] interest grew during the bidding process"

[Thanks, Lana!]

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Tags: art, asia, auction, bowl, christie's, dynasty, hong kong, qing, vase

Will Kazakhstan Be The New Vegas?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

It seems almost like a late April's Fool's Day joke but it's true, Kazak authorities are pondering a gambling and entertainment complex near the city of Almaty. The BBC reports that President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said that he had long thought of building a version of Las Vegas on a steppe outside the city. A desert gambling oasis may help control gambling inside the major cities. Almaty alone has nearly 40 casinos. Nazarbayev wants to shift that action to the shores of Lake Kapchegai around 50 miles away (Vegas with a beach). While the article references the rise of gambling in Asian countries it doesn't mention that another aspirant to the Vegas throne, the Cotai Strip in Macau which already has attracted major hotel and retail interest and has massive Vegas-style hotels under construction. Now if Steve Wynn shows up in Kazakhstan then we'll know it's really going somewhere.

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Tags: asia, central asia, gambling, kazakhstan, las vegas, macao, macau