Business

Famous Auction Records That Stunned the World

Name: Famous Auction Records That Stunned the World
Creator: Community curated
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A $450M Leonardo, a $100M rabbit balloon, a shredded Banksy — which auction lot caused the greatest jaw-drop in the saleroom?

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Updated:3/7/2026

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Item Sold↕	Sale Price↕	Year↕	Auction House↕	Known For↕
Salvator Mundi (Leonardo da Vinci)	$450.3 million	2017	Christie's New York	The last Leonardo in private hands — a haunting portrait of Christ holding a crystal orb sold to Saudi Crown Prince MBS, shattering every art record ever set, its authenticity is still debated by scholars, it has not been publicly displayed since the sale, the art world's greatest mystery purchase
Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (Andy Warhol)	$195 million	2022	Christie's New York	The most expensive American artwork and most expensive 20th-century artwork ever auctioned — Warhol's iconic 1964 silk-screen of Marilyn Monroe in turquoise and yellow, sold from the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation to Larry Gagosian in just four minutes of bidding
Les Femmes d'Alger (Pablo Picasso)	$179.4 million	2015	Christie's New York	Picasso's vibrant 1955 reworking of Delacroix's harem scene held the auction record for two years — the painting features Picasso's signature Cubist fragmentation of the female form in blazing colors, sold after 11 minutes of bidding to a Qatari buyer
Rabbit (Jeff Koons)	$91.1 million	2019	Christie's New York	A stainless-steel inflatable rabbit sculpture became the most expensive work by a living artist — Koons' 1986 bunny reflects everything around it like a funhouse mirror, critics called it the ultimate symbol of art market absurdity, purchased by hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen
Girl with Balloon (Banksy)	£1.04 million (then re-sold for £18.6M)	2018	Sotheby's London	The moment the auctioneer's hammer fell, a hidden shredder inside the frame activated and half-destroyed the canvas live on camera — the greatest art prank in history, the half-shredded work was renamed 'Love is in the Bin' and later resold for 18 times the original price
The Codex Leicester (Leonardo da Vinci)	$30.8 million	1994	Christie's New York	Bill Gates bought Leonardo's 72-page scientific notebook — handwritten in mirror script with diagrams of water flow, fossils, and celestial light, Gates digitized it and shares pages as Windows screensavers, the most expensive manuscript ever sold at auction
Blue Moon Diamond (12.03 carats)	$48.5 million	2015	Sotheby's Geneva	The most expensive diamond and most expensive jewel ever auctioned — a flawless vivid blue cushion-cut stone renamed 'The Blue Moon of Josephine' after the buyer's daughter, blue diamonds of this size and purity surface perhaps once in a generation
1962 Ferrari 250 GTO	$48.4 million	2018	RM Sotheby's Monterey	The most expensive car ever sold at public auction — chassis #3413GT, one of only 36 made, raced at Le Mans and the Tour de France, the 250 GTO is the holy grail of automotive collecting where private sales have reportedly topped $70 million
Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A	$31.2 million	2019	Christie's Geneva (Only Watch)	The most expensive watch ever sold at auction — a unique steel-cased version of Patek's most complicated wristwatch with 20 complications including 5 chiming modes, made exclusively for the Only Watch charity auction, steel cases are rarer than gold in haute horlogerie
T. rex 'Stan' (fossil skeleton)	$31.8 million	2020	Christie's New York	A nearly complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton sold for eight times its estimate — 'Stan' had been on display at a South Dakota museum for decades, paleontologists were horrified that a scientifically important specimen vanished into a private collection, later revealed the buyer was Abu Dhabi
Action Comics #1 (Superman debut)	$6.16 million	2024	Heritage Auctions	The most valuable comic book in existence — the June 1938 issue introducing Superman, originally sold for 10 cents, this CGC 8.5 graded copy is one of roughly 100 surviving examples, every record-breaking sale of this comic becomes front-page news worldwide
1952 Mickey Mantle Topps Card #311	$12.6 million	2022	Heritage Auctions	The most expensive sports card ever sold — a PSA 9.5 graded example of Mantle's rookie card, the card is the cornerstone of the entire sports memorabilia hobby, its value growth from $50,000 in 2000 to $12.6 million tracks the explosion of alternative asset investing
The Macallan 1926 60-Year-Old (whisky)	$2.7 million	2023	Sotheby's London	The most expensive bottle of spirits ever sold — one of only 40 bottles from a single legendary cask, this example had a hand-painted label by artist Michael Dillon, The Macallan 1926 has become the undisputed apex lot of whisky collecting, surpassing every other bottle by millions
Everydays: The First 5000 Days (Beeple)	$69.3 million	2021	Christie's (online)	The first major NFT artwork sold by a traditional auction house — a collage of 5,000 digital images Beeple created daily for 13 years, bought by crypto investor Metakovan, validated NFTs as fine art for a brief euphoric moment before the market collapsed
Einstein's Letter to Roosevelt (1939)	$2.1 million	2002	Christie's New York	The letter that started the atomic age — Einstein warned President Roosevelt that Nazi Germany might develop an atomic bomb, directly leading to the Manhattan Project, one of the most consequential documents in human history, bought by an anonymous collector