December 2015 - US auction highlights
20 January, 2016
RM Sotheby’s rounded off the year in style, when the ex-Juan Manuel Fangio 1956 Ferrari 290 MM sold for $28,050,000 (estimate $28,000,000 – 32,000,000) – securing the honours for the top auction price achieved in 2015.
Whilst the Ferrari was the undoubted star of the New York event, the biggest surprise of the sale was a psychedelically liveried 1964 Porsche 356 C 1600 SC Cabriolet once owned by Janis Joplin which made an estimate busting $1,760,000 (estimate $400,000 – 600,000). Joplin’s paint job was the creation of her band’s ‘roadie’ Dave Richards, who referred to the work as 'The History of the Universe'. Following Joplin’s death in 1970 the car was returned to its original Dolphin Grey paintwork, however by the early 1990s as interest in rock memorabilia increased, the significance of the car’s history led the Joplin Family to commission Richards’s original artwork to be duplicated on a new finish.
Other noticeable highlights included; a 1962 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, chassis number DB4GT/0186/R, which realised $14,300,000 to set a new record for a British automobile sold at auction; a freshly restored 1972 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV straddled its estimates, selling for $2,420,000; and a 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow breezed past its estimate, fetching $3,740,000 (estimate $2,500,000 – 3,000,000). Overall RM Sotheby’s reported a sale total of $73.5 million with an 81% sale rate.
