Habanos Festival Concludes With $4.4 Million Cohiba Humidor
It was big news in 2020 when a Cohiba humidor sold for $2.6 million at the Habanos Festival auction. A record had been broken and history had been made. Then, in September, the record was broken again when another Cohiba humidor sold for $2.8 million at the Cohiba 55 Aniversario celebration. But last week, the record was shattered when a Cohiba humidor sold at auction for 4.2 million euros ($4.4 million). It was one of many humidors that collectively raised 11.2 million euros ($11.8 million) on the closing night of the Habanos Festival. The proceeds will go to support Cuba’s public healthcare system.
The final gala was an exciting end to the last evening of the 23rd Habanos Festival. The event had been canceled for the last two years because of the pandemic, but was back on schedule and put the Partagás brand as the festival’s primary showpiece. While the new Partagás Línea Maestra was announced a few days before—as well as a new Montecristo and Bolivar—the Partagás cigars were formally introduced and passed out during the last banquet.
As is typical of the final night, the event was a formal dinner scored by a roster of musical acts, cigars throughout the evening and a final auction, which featured one-of-a-kind humidors featuring well-known brands such as Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo, H. Upmann, Hoyo de Monterrey and, of course, Cohiba.
Always the show-stealer, the Cohiba humidor holds 500 cigars and was auctioned together with an Audemars Piguet timepiece from an anonymous donor. It’s loaded with everything from regular-production Cohibas to Behikes to limited editions like the Cohiba 1966 and Sublimes cigars.
In attendance was Habanos co-president Luis Sánchez-Harguindey Pardo de Vera along with new co-president Maritza Carrillo González. The unexpected guest, however, was Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel. Though not the first time Cuba’s sitting president showed up at the festival, it had been a number of years since one had attended.
The Habanos Festival attracts thousands of guests from around the world, including retailers, distributors, collectors and passionate fans of Cuban cigars looking to get an up-close look at Cuba’s cigar culture and celebrate the Habano on an international platform. Habanos S.A., the worldwide marketing company and distributor of Cuban cigars, uses the festival as a means to preview new products before they are globally released.
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