Private collection of whisky bottles sells for almost £6.7m

A private collection of 3900 whisky bottles has sold for around £6.7m at auction.

The group took a hammer price of 9,100,000 US dollars (£6,675,000), becoming the highest-value collection of its kind.

It saw 1557 distinct bidders from 54 countries battling it out for more than 1900 lots on its final day of auction.

Iain McClune, founder of Whisky Auctioneer, said : “This auction was solely dedicated to one collector’s magnificent library of whisky – a man who was dedicated to building the perfect collection.

“As enthusiasts of whisky ourselves, we knew that this collection deserved its own spotlight to allow us to truly convey the rarity and sheer scale of something so historic.

“With so many incredible bottles attracting the attention of high-value investors and passionate collectors across the world, the sale is one for the record books – not just for Whisky Auctioneer but for the whisky industry as a whole.”

The most expensive bottle in the collection, the Macallan 1926 Fine and Rare 60-year-old, sold for a hammer price of 1.4m dollars (£1m) – the first time a single bottle of whisky is believed to have sold at an online-only auction for one million pounds.

It was part of the highest-value private collection ever to sell on the secondary market at an auction dedicated to one single collector’s whisky.