Wednesday, 12 June, 2024
By McCreadie Andias,
Uniquely significant goods and properties are sold at public auctions to the highest bidder. People often spend millions at auctions to acquire unique items due to their rarity, historical significance, or personal value. These purchases can be seen as investments, status symbols, or a means of preserving cultural heritage. The competitive nature of auctions can also drive prices higher, as bidders strive to outdo each other to secure coveted items.
Here are certainly the ten most expensive goods sold at public auctions;
10. Badminton Cabinet – $36.6 million
The Badminton Cabinet is a monumental piece of 18th-century furniture that twice set the record for most expensive piece of furniture ever sold.
The Badminton Cabinet, or Badminton Chest, was commissioned in 1726 by Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of Beaufort, at the age of 19. It took thirty experts six years to make, and came to be named after the Duke’s country seat, Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England, where it remained until it was auctioned by his descendants in the late 20th century.
The 386 cm ebony cabinet became the highest-priced piece of furniture in the world when it was auctioned for £8.58 million in 1990. It again set the record when it was auctioned in December 2004, this time for £19 million.
It was then sold for $36,662,106 to Dr Johan Kraeftner, Director of the Lichtenstein Museum in Vienna.
9. Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 by Georgia O’Keeffe – $44.4 million
Jimson Weed is an oil on linen painting by American artist Georgia O’Keeffe from 1936, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana. It depicts four large blossoms of jimson weed. A similar work by O’Keeffe, Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, was sold by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum at auction to Walmart heiress Alice Walton in 2014 for $44,405,000, more than tripling the previous world record auction for a piece by a female artist.
8. 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta – $48.4 million
Billed by British auction house RM Sotheby’s as “the world’s most important, desirable, and legendary motorcar,” this 1962 Ferrari 250GTO certainly has some high expectations to live up to. The example seen here, known among the prancing-horse faithful as chassis 3413, is considered by Ferrari experts to be “one of the most authentic and original of all GTO examples” and boasts a backstory worthy of the $60-million hype. Even though the 2021 final sale price of $48,405,000 came up a bit short of that high-end estimate, it’s nonetheless an almost unimaginable amount of money that set a world record for any car sold at auction.
7. Oppenheimer Blue Diamond – $57.5 million
The Oppenheimer Blue is a 14.62-carat vivid blue diamond that in May 2016 became the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction, until April 2017 when it was surpassed by the Pink Star diamond.
The diamond was named for its previous owner Philip Oppenheimer. It is cut into a rectangle (emerald cut).The Oppenheimer Blue is the largest fancy vivid blue diamond classified by the Gemological Institute of America ever sold at auction; it sold at Christie’s in Geneva in May 2016 for US$50.6 million. Two telephone bidders had competed for the diamond; the identity of the purchaser is not publicly known.
6. Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) by David Hockney – $90.3 million
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) is a large acrylic-on-canvas pop art painting by British artist David Hockney, completed in May 1972. It measures 7 ft × 10 ft (2.1 m × 3.0 m), and depicts two figures: one swimming underwater and one clothed male figure looking down at the swimmer. In November 2018, it sold for US$90.3 million, at that time the highest price ever paid at auction for a painting by a living artist. It is a Private collection Owned by Pierre Chen.
5. Rabbit by Jeff Koons – $91.1 million
Rabbit is a 1986 series of three identical stainless steel sculptures by Jeff Koons. One of the editions of Rabbit is the most expensive work sold by a living artist at auction, being sold for $91.1 million in May 2019.
However, the Identity of the buyer remained a mystery although reports indicated that collectors from around the world had positioned themselves on the work during the sale.
4. Giacometti’s Pointing Man – $141.3 million
“The Man with the Finger”; also called Pointing Man or Man Pointing) is a 1947 bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, that became the most expensive sculpture ever when it sold for US$141.3 million on May 11, 2015. It was sold at the same auction where Pablo Picasso’s art Les Femmes d’Alger was sold. The sculpture was created by the Swiss artist in just one night.
Giacometti made six casts of the work plus one artist’s proof. Pointing Man is in the collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, London’s Tate Gallery, and the Des Moines Art Center. One of the others is also in a museum, and the rest are in foundation collections or owned privately.
Another Giacometti work, L’Homme qui marche I, had also been the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction, when it sold for £65 million (US$104.3 million) at Sotheby’s, London on 3 February
3. The Gigayacht – $168 million
The vessel is owned by entertainment mogul David Geffen, the Press Herald reported. The yacht, named Rising Sun, has 82 rooms, including a gym, wine cellar, spa and movie theater, according to the Press Herald. It can accommodate up to 16 guests and 45 crew members.
2. Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O) by Pablo Picasso – $179.4 million
Les Femmes d’Alger (English: Women of Algiers) is a series of 15 paintings and numerous drawings by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The series, created in 1954–1955, was inspired by Eugène Delacroix’s 1834 painting The Women of Algiers in their Apartment.The series is one of several painted by Picasso in tribute to artists that he admired.
Designed by a medium of Oil on canvas, The entire series of Les Femmes d’Alger was bought by Victor and Sally Ganz from the Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris for $212,500 in June 1956 (equivalent to $2.4 million in 2024).Ten paintings from the series were later sold by the Ganz’s to the Saidenberg Gallery. Many of the individual paintings in the series are now in prominent public and private collections.
1.Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi – $450.3 million
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud purchased Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi at 2017 auction in New York for a record-breaking $450 million, and is reported to be building a gallery to display the contested work in his home country.
Salvator Mundi’s uniqueness is attributed to specific reasons, mainly it depicts Christ in the Renaissance theme and also it probably being the last work by Leonardo. Also, there are only less than twenty paintings of da Vinci known, and this particular being the only one that remained in someone’s possession.