2023-11-14 03:40:12
The highlight of the season was the Ferrari 250 GTO, which Sotheby’s called “the holy grail of the sports car pantheon” and likened to a masterpiece of the arts. Owned by an American collector for 38 years, the example of the legendary Italian sports car beat another Ferrari 250 GTO sold in 2018, at Sotheby’s, for $48 million.
But the Italian made much less than the absolute record for a car at auction: a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé sold in 2022 for 135 million euros. One of only two examples of this sports Mercedes – sold at a confidential auction in May 2022 at the German manufacturer’s museum in Stuttgart – “was the most expensive car ever sold” in the world, whether auction or private sales, a spokesperson for RM Sotheby’s, the luxury automobile subsidiary, told AFP.
Handpicked buyers
It only took a few minutes, between a few hand-picked potential buyers gathered in a closed room, for the 250 GTO to sell for $51.7 million, however below “more than $60 million” expected.
Dating from 1962, this legendary Scuderia sports car – chassis numbered 3765, four-liter engine developing 390 horsepower – finished at the time in second place during a 1000 km endurance race on the circuit German race at the Nürburgring as well as the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the team had to withdraw due to engine failure.
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After a few years of competition in Italy and Sicily, the car was sold and exported to the United States at the end of the 1960s. Restored and modified, this 250 GTO changed American owners several times before ending up in the hands of 1985. ‘a collector from Ohio, who had kept it until today.
Ukraine and Gaza
Despite the context of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and global inflation, the art and luxury market, driven by China and Asia, shows “no sign” of slowing down, Sotheby’s assured before these sales fall, following an exceptional 2022 vintage with more than $16 billion in cumulative auctions.
Sotheby’s, owned by Franco-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, and Christie’s, which belongs to the Artémis holding of French billionaire François Pinault, have each already raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales since November 7.
Christie’s, which sold “Le bassin aux nymphéas” (1917-1919) by Claude Monet on Thursday for $74 million and three paintings by Paul Cézanne for $53 million, reported Monday evening a balance sheet of $864 million.
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Its competitor Sotheby’s, which will conclude its New York sales on Thursday, is also worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including “Woman with a Watch” (1932) by Pablo Picasso sold on Wednesday for 139 million dollars, the second highest amount ever reached for the Spanish master, who died 50 years ago.
Monday evening, at its headquarters in Manhattan, Sotheby’s sold a Cézanne from 1891, “Poplars on the Banks of the Epte, Overcast Weather,” to a collector in Asia for $30.7 million. A Monet from 1892, “Le Moulin de Limetz”, in the same American family for 130 years, was sold for 25.6 million dollars, following minutes of battle on the telephone and in the room. Finally, the highly prized American painter Mark Rothko broke his record for his works on paper: “Untitled” (1968) was purchased by an anonymous person in the room for 23.8 million dollars.
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