She's seen things worthy of an Indiana Jones movie, such as the jewels of Princess Salwa Aga Khan and the US$3 million diamond-and-Sri-Lankan sapphire necklace worn by Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge.

“How many people are lucky enough to get a taste of that?” the Malaysian-born Charmie says. “I guess I’m lucky. We get to see things which are rare, which are interesting. Items that are not accessible to the public.”

Best known for art; Christie’s also says that auctions for jewellery, watches and handbags, among other things, are attracting more interest, as well as chances to find rare pieces well suited to luxury-loving would-be archeaologists.

Handbags

Christie's has been auctioning handbags since 1978, although only for the last five years or so in Asia. It’s good business. In November in Hong Kong, for example, Christie’s sold around 200 bags for about $5 million.

“If you come to the auction, it’s like you died and have gone to Hermès heaven,” Charmie says. There’s not a store in the world like a Christie’s handbag auction preview, which feature walls full of a dazzling selection of limited-edition handbags, all arranged by color, for brands such as Chanel, Dior, Hermès and Louis Vuitton.

Clients look at the auction as a chance to beat the months-long or even years- long wait list for a new bag from the brand. Christie’s has even partnered with Hermès for some special direct sales.

Fewer in number are bag collectors, who typically look for rare limited editions, Charmie says. What’s popular are bags in good condition. In-house experts grade pieces ("very, very selectively," she adds) on a scale from 1 to 5, depending on the level of scratching and use. Also popular are handbags with quirky, small sizes and extras such as diamond buckles or exotic skins, such as with the Birkin Himalaya (dubbed “The Most Important Handbag in the World”), which Christie’s sold for about $380,000 in 2017.

Jewellery

Charmie, a GIA-certified Graduate Gemologist, started with Christie’s Indonesia tending to jewellery pieces and auctions. She says that evaluating a piece depends on the classic four Cs–carat, clarity, color and cut, and, to a lesser extent, pedigree and design. Most of her clients are looking for diamonds. “The bigger, the better. The trend now is above 10 carats. Of course it has to be the best three colors: D, E, F. They want the best.” Also trending are vintage pieces from the Parisian jewellery firm Van Cleef & Arpels (who also made the Empress of Iran’s crown) and Cartier’s iconic panther rings and brooches.

Watches

Unlike as in handbags, the trend for Christie's watch auctions is for vintage, meaning pieces that are at least 20 years old and are no longer in production.

Locking down a watch that cannot simply be bought at an authorized dealer gives a collector bragging rights, whether it's the 18-carat gold Patek Philippe worn by King Faoruk (sold by Christie’s in Dubai in March for $912,500) or even a less expensive Rolex Daytona with the same reference as Paul Newman’s (whose original Rolex recently sold for $17.8 million).

“Vintage is the trend,” Charmie says, for both older established and younger emerging local collectors, all of who typically already have modern statement watches.

Investment

Sometimes it’s easy to gauge a piece’s investment value, as in some jewellery pieces, where a stone’s character and pedigree are paramount, such as for Kashmiri sapphires or Mogok’s pigeon-blood rubies, according to Charmie. However, she never advises clients to pursue auctions pieces as investments.

“You have to like the artwork or the pieces you collect,” she says. “I know a lot of people say it’s not true and you have to think about investment, and yes, you do, but when I do advise [to buy], it’s always something that the person appreciates.”

Read also: Very rare Qing Dynasty bowl sells for $30.4 million

Auctions

While buying something from Christie’s offers unusual selections, there’s also something unique to the auction: drama.

“The auctioneer will try to get people to go onto another bid. It’s the auctioneer’s profession,” Charmie says. “It’s difficult. You have to know how to draw the bids out of people–the rhythm–to draw out and to stall to make people go one more.”

Charmie’s most thrilling auction was in New York, for Christie’s sale of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in November, a masterpiece long thought lost and one of only 20 paintings by the Renaissance polymath to have survived to the 21st century.

Showmanship works. After 20 minutes of action, Salvator Mundi sold for a world- record, just $450 million dollars.

Christie's next preview in Jakarta, for the Hong Kong Spring 2018 auction, will be open to the public on April 27 and 28.

This article was originally published in the Apr. 2018 edition of J+ by The Jakarta Post with the headline "Luxury on the Block".

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