Ferrari, sold for $51.7 million, became the second most expensive car at auction

$51.7 million. That’s the pharaonic price a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for in New York on Monday. That price makes it the second most expensive car ever sold at auction, according to Sotheby’s, in a healthy art market.

Auction giants Sotheby’s and Christie’s this week wrap up what is expected to be a multi-billion-dollar fall season with paintings by Picasso, Monet, Cezanne and Rothko sold during ultra-chic New York soirées attended by collectors. people and anonymous buyers on the phone.

The highlight of the season was the Ferrari 250 GTO, which Sotheby’s called “the Holy Grail of the sports car pantheon.” Owned by an American collector for 38 years, the legendary Italian sports car surpassed another Ferrari 250 GTO, sold in 2018 at Sotheby’s for $48 million.

If the Italian’s price is exorbitant, then it is far from the absolute record for a car at auction – the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, sold in 2022 for 135 million euros.

Four-liter engine with 390 horsepower.

One of only two examples of this Mercedes sports car, sold at confidential auctions in May 2022 at the German manufacturer’s museum in Stuttgart, it thus remains the “most expensive car ever sold” in the world, whether through auctions or private sales. a company representative said. RM Sotheby’s, a luxury car subsidiary, told AFP.

Just a few minutes later, a few carefully selected potential buyers gathered indoors sold the 250 GTO for $51.7 million, well below the expected price of “more than $60 million.”

This legendary Scuderia sports car, launched in 1962 and equipped with a four-liter engine producing 390 horsepower, finished second in the 1000 km endurance race at the German Nürburgring circuit, as well as in the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. from where the team had to withdraw due to engine failure.

After years of competition in Italy and Sicily, the car was sold and exported to the United States in the late 1960s. Restored and modified, this 250 GTO changed American owners several times before ending up in the hands of an Ohio collector in 1985 and preserved to this day. day.