Palm Beach Billionaire Sues Christie’s

It seems that lots of East Coasters, with ties to both NYC and Miami, have bones to pick this week. First we brought you news of developer Craig Robins’ lawsuit against a Chelsea art gallery. Now we find out that Palm Beach billionaire William Koch is also opting to take advantage of the American judicial system by filing a suit in Manhattan federal court against Christie’s auction house.

Certain hobbies are reserved for connoisseurs of the luxury lifestyle, and we would count wine collecting as one of them. So would Koch. He spent more than $300,000 on four bottles of the lavish liquid, which he believed were once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Why would he believe such a grand claim? For two reasons: because Christie’s said so, and the “Th.J” engraving on the glass. Only problem is that Koch has done some prying and alleges that German glass workers living today have admitted to the engraving work. Christie’s has respectfully dismissed the suit and is eagerly anticipating proving its innocence.

Koch is not only suing for damages, but he is also requesting an injunction against the auction house to prevent them from unloading any bottles dating back to before 1962 without certified proof. This isn’t the first suit that Koch has filed in regards to the TJ vintages, so the saga continues.

Wine collecting isn’t the only haute hobby for this affluent mogul. (As an entrepreneurial chemical engineer, he founder of The Oxbow Group, which is consistently ranked in Forbes’ top 500 privately held U.S. companies.) He is such an avid yachting enthusiast that in 1992 he took home the Americas Cup.

Source New York Post