Kurniawan wines make US$1.5m

A sale of fine wines belonging to Rudy Kurniawan has realised US$1.5 million – while hundreds more deemed fake have been destroyed.

It was announced back in November that nearly 5,000 genuine bottles of fine wine, formerly belonging to the convicted fraudster, would be sold online by the US Marshals Service.

The online auction ended on Tuesday 15 November having made US$1.5m with 905 of the 927 lots offered (98%) being sold.

The highest-selling lot was three bottles of 1911 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti, which realised US$45,200. Proceeds from the sale will go towards reimbursing those ‘Dr Conti’ defrauded.

Meanwhile, late last week, a further 500 bottles found in Kurniawan’s house after his arrest were destroyed after they were declared forgeries.

US marshals used a car magnet to smash hundreds of the counterfeit bottles into the dirt at a landfill site in south Texas.