Largest lot of rare liquors up for $8M

BREDA, Netherlands, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A Dutch collector has said he's willing to sell his collection of rare liquors -- which he calls the world's largest -- for $8 million.

Bay van der Bunt, 63, said because he and his wife do not have any children or potential heirs to take over his collection of more than 5,000 bottled liquors, he must sell the lot.

"So sadly, I have to let it go," van der Bunt said in a news release Thursday. "Over the last 35 years, I frequented worldwide auctions like Christie's and Sotheby's. I bought from famous restaurants like Maxim's and La Tour d'Argent in Paris and Le Cirque in New York when they thinned out their cellars. Some cognacs even belonged to the estate of the duke of Windsor," he added.

Some of the oldest bottles in the collection date back to 1789. Van der Bunt said it would take two to three generations to amass a collection of its size.

"My grandfather had hundreds of bottles which my father passed on to me, so collecting is something I have grown up with," he said.

Van der Bunt said he doesn't drink the liquors -- which include cognac, whiskey, armagnac, port and madeira -- and hopes to find a collector who shares his passion to take over the entire lot.

"Collecting cognacs and old liquors was very time consuming and cost a fortune, but it proves to be the best financial investment I have ever made," he said.