Forum ChaOdisiaque

Hong Kong property tycoon Joseph Lau
THEY are not in the room rubbing shoulders with traditional wealthy buyers Nike Shox OZ Pas Cher , instead choosing to remain in the shadows, making their multi-million bids by telephone.


Asian millionaires and billionaires last week discretely stolen the show at a range of auctions, dishing out record sums for works of art and precious gemstones put on the block.


Auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s say the spectacular sales are part of a wider trend in which their business is increasingly turning toward Asia.


Christie’s Asia chief Francois Curiel said the auction house had quadrupled its Asia-based staff since 2010 to 220 to keep up with the demand.


“When I arrived in Hong Kong in 2010, our Asian clients represented five percent of our sales on a global scale. In 2014, they represented 31 percent,� he said.


The same is true of competing auction house Sotheby’s Nike Shox R4 Homme Pas Cher , where Asian clients today account for about a third of global high-end jewelry sales, Asian director Patti Wong said.


“Asian participants make up a hugely important part of our global client base,� she said, adding that over the past decade “we’ve seen tremendous growth� from Asia.


This past week, Asian clients have certainly taken center-stage.


The first spectacular hammer blow fell Tuesday evening at a Christie’s art auction in New York, when a former Shanghai taxi driver turned billionaire financier Nike Shox R4 Femme Pas Cher , Liu Yiqian, bought a famed Modigliani nude for more than US$170 million.


The 51-year-old tycoon, who made his fortune in real estate and finance in the 1990s, has made a string of purchases for his two museums in Shanghai.


The same day, Hong Kong property tycoon Joseph Lau spent US$28.5 million for a huge 16.08-carat pink diamond at a Christie’s jewel auction in Geneva, and immediately renamed it “Sweet Josephine Nike Shox R4 Pas Cher ,� after his 7-year-old daughter.


According to the auction house, that marks a world record for a pink diamond in the highest color category, “fancy vivid.�


Lau, 64, was not satisfied though.


On Wednesday, he struck again Nike Shox NZ Femme Pas Cher , buying a 12.03-carat blue diamond, “Blue Moon,� for a record US$48.4 million, this time at Sotheby’s in Geneva.


David Bennett, head of Sotheby’s international jewelry division, said the “Blue Moon� sale broke several records Nike Shox NZ Homme Pas Cher , making the gemstone “the most expensive diamond, regardless of color, and the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction.�


The jewel, set in a ring, also fetched the highest-ever price per carat, he said Nike Shox NZ Pas Cher , with the buyer shelling out 4.02 million Swiss francs per carat.


The shimmering blue stone was also immediately renamed after Lau’s daughter, and is now called “The Blue Moon of Josephine.�


A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Lau confirmed the two diamond purchases to AFP.


This is not the first time Lau has bought rare jewels for his daughter. In 2009, he reportedly spent US$9.5 million on another blue diamond, which he renamed the “Star of Josephine.�


Josephine is his daughter with girlfriend and former aide Chan Hoi-wan, according to local media.


The 64-year-old also has two children with long-time partner Yvonne Lui.


TOKYO, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar rebounded to the upper 110 yen zone Friday in Tokyo following a brief drop early morning over the latest missile launch of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).


The dollar dropped to mid-109 yen early in the morning and gradually gained ground later. It fluctuated between 109.55 yen and 110.77 yen during the day.


At 5:00 p.m. local time www.shoxnikepascher.fr , the dollar was quoted at 110.70-72 yen compared with 110.18-28 yen in New York and 110.40-42 yen in Tokyo at 5:00 p.m. Thursday.


The euro fetched 1.1920-1921 dollars and 131.96-132.00 yen against 1.1914-1924 dollars and 131.37-47 yen in New York and 1.1905-1907 dollars and 131.43-47 yen in Tokyo late Thursday afternoon.


Market players are still awaiting the U.S. economic data which are expected to be released later in the day, including retail sales and industrial production data for August, local analysts said.


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by Alessandra Cardone


ROME Nike Shox Pas Cher France , May 10 (Xinhua) -- Cultural initiatives and exchanges have nurtured the integration of second-generation Chinese immigrants in Italy as dozens of people gathered at the Nelson Mandela public library in Rome's San Giovanni neighborhood to watch documentaries on Chinese-born young people, and discuss about their hopes, experiences, and search for identity.


The event held earlier this week was part of a cycle of five meetings on the Chinese culture organized by the Confucius Institute at La Sapienza University of Rome between March and June.


"Such initiatives are increasingly popular among Italians, and they also draw more and more people of Chinese origins, as the event shows Nike Shox Pas Cher Soldes ," moderator Valentina Pedone told Xinhua.


Pedone is the Italian director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Florence, and a renowned researcher in the field of the Chinese migration in Italy.


She explained that Chinese-born youth in Italy maintains strong attachment to their ethnic roots, while looking at the same time at the country in which they were born or raised as a source of opportunities.


This process would be mirrored in the cultural production of second generation Chinese, she said. "My studies deal with the cultur.