Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A rare case of China's fiery national liquor has sold for more than US$1 million, more than five times what experts had estimated it would fetch.
Sotheby's announced on Friday that it had sold a crate of the beloved spirit, Kweichow Moutai, for an eye-popping £1 million (almost US$1.4 million) in London.
That's the highest price ever paid at an auction for a single lot of Moutai outside China, according to the auction house.
It said the winning bid had come from an Asian collector, though it did not disclose the buyer's identity.
The lot included 24 bottles of 1974 Moutai sold under the "Sun Flower" brand — which had temporarily replaced the company's flagship "Flying Fairy" logo for export sales during China's cultural revolution — according to Sotheby's.
It said that the line had first been introduced in 1969, with relatively limited production for the year of 1974, making it "highly sought after."
However, the red-hot response has caught even experts by surprise.
According to Sotheby's, 14 bidders drove up the sales price to £1 million, up from pre-sale estimates that had ranged from £200,000 to £450,000.
It added that the record-breaking sale was just its first lot of Moutai to be presented for auction by Sotheby's in the United Kingdom.
"We have seen some spectacular results for Moutai sold in Hong Kong, but this momentous price takes the baijiu spirit's standing amongst collectors to new heights," Paul Wong, Sotheby's Moutai specialist, said in a statement.
"Whilst current travel restrictions may prevent our clients from moving around, this has proved no impediment to the growing momentum of Moutai's popularity outside Asia."
Kweichow Moutai, which is part state-owned and part publicly-traded, is China's most valuable firm outside of technology — worth more than the country's four biggest banks.
Even amid a global pandemic, the company had a banner year: its stock surged around 70 per cent on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2020. It is up about 4 per cent so far this year.
Moutai baijiu — the type of liquor the company makes — is a clear, potent spirit that's been dubbed "firewater," thanks to the fact that it's 53% alcohol. The red-and-white bottles of its flagship product, "Feitian," or "Flying Fairy," are a staple at Chinese state banquets and business events.
Known as the favorite tipple of Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China, and as the "drink of diplomacy," it was famously used to welcome former US President Richard Nixon on his historic trip to China in 1972, and again in 2013 when Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his US counterpart, Barack Obama, in California.
— Zixu Wang and Nectar Gan contributed to this report.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.