LYNGBY, Denmark (AP) — It was a wedding that captivated the world — in 1981, Lady Diana Spencer said “I will” to Prince Charles, becoming Princess of Wales and bringing youth and glamour to Britain’s royal family.
More than 40 years after the wedding and many years after the marriage fell apart, royal fans had the chance to buy a rare part of that historic day — or perhaps a sip of it — during an auction Thursday. But the exclusive magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne was ultimately not sold because the bids were not high enough.
The champagne, specially produced for the occasion, was expected to fetch up to 600,000 Danish kroner (around 81,000 euros or $93,000) when it went under the hammer Thursday at Bruun Rasmussen’s auction house in Lyngby, north of Copenhagen.
“The bids did not reach the desired minimum price, and therefore it was unfortunately not sold,” auction house spokesperson Kirstine Dam Frihed said in an email Thursday. “We had of course hoped that it would sell at the estimated value, especially considering the great public interest it received.”
Prince Charles, now King Charles III, married Lady Diana Spencer in London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981. The ceremony was followed by a lavish reception at Buckingham Palace.
Charles and Diana separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. A year later, she and companion Dodi Fayed died in a high-speed car crash in Paris.
The champagne was a limited-edition wedding release, created to celebrate the union.
A unique label reads: “Specially shipped to honor the marriage of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. 29 July 1981.”
“It’s really, really rare and a bottle with that royal provenance,” Thomas Rosendahl, head of the auction house’s wine department, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press ahead of the auction.
Rosendahl said only 12 were made and were intended to be opened on the day. It’s not known what happened to the others, perhaps gifted to guests.
“It was a celebration from Dom Pérignon to the wedding,” Rosendahl said.
“They also got … normal bottles that were served at the wedding, but these bottles were just forgotten or kept away.”
Little was revealed about the seller. Rosendahl only said that it’s a Danish collector who previously purchased the bottle from a London wine merchant.
Rosendahl said that he’s been contacted by “a lot of wine collectors” asking about the magnum, its provenance, and how it was stored. And tests suggest it’s still drinkable.
Henrik Smidt, who is the fine wine manager at Danish wine merchant Kjaer and Sommerfeldt in Copenhagen, said beforehand that he expected the magnum to achieve a high price.
“You have the combination of one of the most famous weddings ever, Lady Diana and Prince Charles. A Dom Pérignon, one of the most famous brands in the world from a very rare vintage," Smidt said. "All wine connoisseurs, all wine collectors would love to have Dom Pérignon in their cellar."
“My guess is that it will not be a wine connoisseur who will buy this bottle of wine, more likely a collector of royal artifacts or even potentially a museum," he said.
The label of a bottle of Dom Perignon Vintage 1961 champagne, specially produced for wedding of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana in 1981, pictured in Lyngby, Denmark, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/James Brooks)x§
A bottle of Dom Perignon Vintage 1961 champagne, specially produced for wedding of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana in 1981, pictured in Lyngby, Denmark, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Thomas Rosendahl, head of wine department of Bruun Rasmussen auction house, holds a bottle of Dom Perignon Vintage 1961 champagne, specially produced for wedding of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana in 1981, in Lyngby, Denmark, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
HONG KONG (AP) — The father of a U.S.-based activist wanted by Hong Kong authorities was convicted Wednesday for attempting to deal with his daughter's financial assets in the city, in the first court case of its kind brought under a homegrown national security law.
Kwok Yin-sang's daughter Anna is the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council. Authorities in 2023 offered 1 million Hong Kong dollars (about $127,900) for information leading to her arrest and later banned anyone from handling any funds for her — widely seen as part of a yearslong crackdown on challenges against Beijing's rule following the massive, anti-government protests in 2019.
Kwok, 69, was arrested in April 2025 under the security law, locally known as Article 23 legislation, enacted a year before. He was accused of having attempted to obtain funds from an insurance policy under his daughter's name. He pleaded not guilty.
Acting principal magistrate Cheng Lim-chi found him guilty on Wednesday, saying Kwok must have known his daughter was an absconder and he was attempting to handle her assets.
According to previous hearings, Kwok bought the insurance policy for Anna when she was a toddler and she gained control of it when she reached 18 years old. The father in 2025 wanted to cancel the policy and get funds from it, the court heard.
Kwok’s lawyer, Steven Kwan, pleaded for a lesser sentence for his client, saying there was no evidence to show his client was trying to get the money to send to his daughter. He suggested the judge consider a 14-day prison term.
While the maximum sentence for his charge is seven years of imprisonment, but his case was heard at the magistrates’ courts, which normally hands down a maximum sentence of two years.
His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 26.
Authorities have accused Anna Kwok of demanding for foreign sanctions, blockade and engaging in other hostile activities against China and Hong Kong through meeting foreign politicians and government officials.
“Today, my father was convicted simply for being my father,” said the younger Kwok on X. “This is transnational repression.”
She said his charge was founded on “incoherent fiction” and she had not received or sought funds from her father or anyone in Hong Kong. She added that the moves from the city's government will not discourage her from carrying on her activism.
Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokesperson Joey Siu said the conviction was apparently politically motivated.
“It also sets a dangerous precedent, designed to terrify and silence others who continue to speak out about Hong Kong issues from overseas,” she said in a statement, calling for Kwok's release.
The police’s bounties targeting overseas-based Hong Kong activists, including Siu and pro-democracy former lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui, have drawn criticism from the U.S. and the U.K. governments.
In 2025, Washington sanctioned six Chinese and Hong Kong officials who it alleged were involved in “transnational repression” and acts that threaten to further erode the city’s autonomy. It said Beijing and Hong Kong officials have used Hong Kong's national security laws extraterritorially to intimidate, silence and harass some activists who were forced to flee overseas.
Weeks after that, China said it would sanction U.S. officials, lawmakers and leaders of nongovernmental organizations who it said have “performed poorly” on Hong Kong issues.
After Beijing imposed a 2020 national security law on the city, many leading activists were arrested or silenced. Others fled abroad and continued their advocacy for Hong Kong, a British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Both China and Hong Kong governments insist the security laws were crucial for the city's stability.
This story was corrected in an earlier version to reflect that Kwok Yin-sang was arrested in April 2025, not May.
Anna Kwok, second right, speaks to Sen. Jeff Merkley at an event outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., on March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Didi Tang)
Anna Kwok speaks during an event commemorating China's June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy movement in Washington D.C., on June 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Didi Tang)
