Soaring international auction sales of art, wine, watches and jewelry signal that investors may be looking to luxury as a hedge against inflation.

"Absolutely there is a flight to quality. Whether it's art, jewels, or wine. If collectors sense there is a limited amount of the best, collectors will buy,” Judith Selkowitz, founder and president of Art Advisory Services, which has provided advice on the acquisition of artwork for corporations and private collectors since 1970.

Christie’s International and Sotheby’s sold a combined $95 million of watches, gems, and wine this week at auctions in Geneva, setting world records for green diamonds, intense blue diamonds, and chameleon diamonds.

“If we enter hyperinflation, you’re going to be so glad that you bought that stuff two months or six months ago,” Johann Rupert, the South African billionaire who controls luxury brands including Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, told investors on a call last week. “If inflation picks up, you’re going to see people running into your stores, buying high[-end] jewelry.”

Last year, about 39 percent of the lots, including the top three pieces, in Sotheby’s Geneva November gem auction went unsold, and about half of the lots at Christie’s were left behind.

Christie’s International raised 19 million Swiss francs ($19 million) Monday in the biggest watch auction this year, including a collection of 10 Patek Philippe watches for almost double the low estimate.

Also on Monday, the world’s oldest charity wine auction, held every year in France for the Hospices de Beaune, raised €5 million ($7.5 million) with fees, the second highest in its 150-year history. Christie’s, which organized the auction in collaboration with the Burgundy-based hospital network, said prices were driven up by bidders’ desire to own wine made in the millennium year.

“Fine wine has, over the last 25 years or so, generated double-digit annualized returns, which is more than can be said for most other asset classes,” Andrew della Casa, director of The Wine Investment Fund, told ARTINFO Thursday. “These returns have been generated with much lower volatility than you’ll find in other, more traditional investments. On a risk-return basis, there continues to be a very strong argument for investing a portion of an investment portfolio in fine wine.”

On April 12, an Andy Warhol painting of 200 dollar bills was sold for $43.8 million at Sotheby's New York by London-based art collector Pauline Karpidas, more than 100 times what she paid in 1986.

“With the returns on liquid assets like money market accounts being effectively zero and with the expectation of future inflationary pressure combined with a weakened dollar, investors are actively moving into real assets. Just look at gold prices,” Andrew C. Rose, founder of Art Finance Partners. “This has also been true in the art market, where, because of the unexpected runup in the U.S. stock market, people are feeling better and richer than they did six months ago,” he explained. “They have started spending money on assets like art and jewelry, which will not only hold their value against inflation, but will also give the enjoyment and pleasure of possessing wonderful objects.”