By Tyler R. Morrissey
Sotheby’s auction house is well-known around the world for its many unique auctions. Here are a few highlights of what’s recently sold, as well as a preview of what’s about to hit the auction block.
History was made once again at the Sotheby’s auction house. According to CNBC, a rare 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for $48.4 million at RM Sotheby’s annual collector car sale in Monterey, California. The sale set a world record for any car ever sold at auction. It beat out a Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta that sold for $38 million in 2014. Not close behind was a 1957 Ferrari that sold for $35 million in Paris, France, in 2016. The $48 million race car sold won the 1962 Italian GT championship and has over 15 class and overall wins from 1962 to 1965. Phil Hill, the first American to be a Formula 1 World Champion, was a driver for the car.
We are all too familiar with the colorful movie posters that adorn our favorite cinemas, and just last month the world’s first known movie poster sold at Sotheby’s in London. The poster, which sold for nearly $207,000 depicts the first-ever screening of films by the Lumière brothers in Paris in 1895. The Guardian explains that the movie premier was a momentous event in cinema history, marking the beginning of one of the most significant cultural developments of the 20th century. At the time it attracted fewer than 30 people to a room where 100 chairs had been laid out. Newspapers had been invited but chose not to attend.
Next month, Sotheby’s New York will auction more than 300 pieces of art, furniture and memorabilia that belonged to Robin Williams. The items were collected by the late actor and his wife of 20 years, Marsha Garces Williams. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the actor’s famous “Blame Canada” t-shirt is estimated to draw up to $2,000, but many artworks collected by the couple, including a custom bronze horse sculpture by artist Deborah Butterfield are expected to draw six-figure bids. Williams’ four Golden Globe Awards are expected to draw up to $20,000 each. Proceeds from those trophies and others, as well as his Oscar nomination certificates from 1989’s Dead Poets Society, Fisher King and 1998’s Good Will Hunting, will go to establish the Robin Williams Scholarship Fund at his alma mater, New York’s Juilliard School.
London has always been known for being at the frontline of creativity and innovation, and the pinnacle was no doubt during the 1960s. It was a cultural youth-driven revolution that emphasized modernity and fun-loving hedonism with London as its epicenter. Sotheby’s upcoming sale, Made in Britain, in London on September 18th will feature a selection of photographs of The Beatles taken in the 1960s. One of the items up for bid relates the band’s most well-known record. In 1967 The Beatles’ album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” came to life. The cover artwork was shot by British photographer Michael Cooper, best known for his intimate photographs of the decade’s leading rock musicians. Featured in the MIB Online sale this November, this beautiful silver gelatin print is an outtake of the session, where Cooper captured McCartney and Harrison alongside the photographer’s son.
