Although the more than $3.2 million paid Wednesday for a 1960 Aston Martin DB4GT represented the top sale of the event, RM Sotheby’s believes it will be “the game-changing prices achieved for some of the Porsches which prove to be the sale’s most potent legacy.”
The sale was the 10th annual RM Sotheby’s London auction of collector cars and follows by only a few weeks the company’s record-breaking Monterey event, where records were set for pre-war, American, European and French vehicles at public auction.
“Our 10th anniversary London sale has been a game-changer for a number of reasons,” Peter Wallman, RM Sotheby’s managing director for Europe, said in a news release after the auction at Battersea Evolution.
“Clearly, the Porsche Collection generated some remarkable results, however, from the evening preview to the sale itself there was an energy that hasn’t been seen in European auction rooms for a little while.
“This year’s auction tally is within a whisker of RM’s best ever, peak-of-the-market, London sale totals,” he added. “We offered cars spanning 117 years and from £5,000 to £2,400,000, so the sale was representative of almost all areas of the market.
“Good cars, well presented with sensible estimates are selling strongly, and that is good news for the market as a whole.”
Overall, the auction posted $29,000,012 in the sale of 65 vehicles, a 76 percent sell-through rate with 86 vehicles crossing the block. Another $23,517 was added to the overall total with one lot of “nostalgia,” a 1992 Ferro Le Mans children’s car. Bidders represented 33 countries and more than a third of those bidding were new customers for RM Sotheby’s.
RM Sotheby’s said the $3,226,720 sales price (including buyer’s fees) was a record for a 1960 DB4GT, of which only 75 were produced.
But the big news, it said, involved the Porsches from a single collection of low-mileage cars, several of which set records, including a 1995 911 GT2 selling for $2,476,320 and a 1993 911 Turbo S Lightweight bringing $1,305,696.
The collection included eight Porsches, which when added together sold for more than $6.3 million, with four of the cars selling for record prices, which runs counter to the recent overall slump in Porsche prices.
Yet another highlight of the auction was a 1967 Iso Grifo GL Series I offered in barn-found condition. The pre-sale estimated value of the car was $40,000 to $65,000 but it sold for $170,592.
Top 10 sales, RM Sotheby’s London auction 2016
- 1960 Aston Martin DB4GT, $3,226,720
- 1995 Porsche 911 GT2, $2476,320
- 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series II, $1,725,920
- 1993 Porsche 911 Turbo S Lightweight, $1,305,696
- 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport Cabriolet, $1,275,680
- 1963 Aston Martin DB4 Series V convertible, $1,275,680
- 1990 Ferrari F40, $1,238,160
- 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL roadster, $1,050,560
- 1967 Maserati Mistral 4.0 Spyder, $990,528
- 1993 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.8, $960,512
(Prices include buyer’s premium.)
RM Sotheby’s also announced that it will add an auction to its 2016 calendar with the sale of a private collection in northern Italy sometime this fall. The sale will offer 750 lots including automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, boats, bobsleds and automobilia.
The next event on the RM Sotheby’s schedule is the annual Hershey auction October 6-7 in Pennsylvania.
