Always interested in art and collecting, he worked with his father, restoring the
Château de Balleroy in
Normandy,
France, and
Old Battersea House in
London,
England. Mr. Forbes has written numerous books and catalogues about art and collecting, including
Fabergé: The Forbes Collection, co-authored with Robyn Tromeur and published by Hugh Lauter Levin. On December 5, 1985, Kip Forbes paid the highest price ever recorded for a single bottle of wine.
Hardy Rodenstock (Meinhard Görke) put one of the 'recently discovered' "Th. J." (
Thomas Jefferson) bottles up for auction at
Christie's in London: a bottle of 1787
Château Lafite engraved "1787 Lafitte Th. J." The bottles had been found in a walled-up old cellar, and were
engraved with vintage years from the late eighteenth century. This had in itself been an interesting find for a collector of old wines, but the bottles also were engraved with the initials, "Th. J.", which was taken as an indication that they had belonged to
Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was an active
oenophile and wine collector, who spent much time in
France during the 1780s and whose interest in wine is well documented. The auction catalogue simply listed the value as "inestimable", and it was sold for 105,000
pound sterling which, as of 2007, remains the worldwide auction record for a single bottle of wine. Forbes was bidding against
Marvin Shanken of
Wine Spectator Magazine, with
Michael Broadbent handling the
gavel at the auction. Rodenstock is currently in court charged with perpetrating
large-scale wine fraud. It is alleged that the Thomas Jefferson bottles are fake, and multiple experts and various pieces of evidence apparently support this conclusion. Rodenstock has refused to allow the German magazine
Stern to have the wine's veracity tested at its expense. A book, ''The Billionaire's Vinegar
, has been published about the affair, although it has been withdrawn from the UK market following legal action by Michael Broadbent. The film rights to both the book and a New Yorker'' article about the scandal have been purchased. ==References==