5 Record Breaking Items Sold At Auctions

By Author: Garrett Tarbell
Total Articles: 21
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Besides the musical singing group ABBA, yet another thing that came out of Sweden is the creation of auction houses. The Stockholm Auction House was set up in 1674 out of which emerged Sotheby’s in 1744 and Christie’s in 1766.

But what’s much more fascinating are which items possess the record breaking prices sold at auctions. It's always been a curious play to watch, those auction activities, from diamond rings to cash title loans to art pieces collectibles, and folks raising their hand like a mental telepathy between the auctioneer and the buyer and the striking the gavel once an item is sold. The act is, for lack of much better term, electrifying.

So what renowned items have garnered the biggest bid in all of history?

1. Pollock’s No.5, 1948

You’d think that of the paintings, the biggest selling will be a Picasso or a Rembrandt or even Van Gogh. But it’s the American painter Jackson Pollock who owns the title and it wasn’t even one of his best, which was considered to be Blue Poles. Famous for his abstract paintings, his No.5, 1948 was sold for $140 million by Sotheby’s. ...
... The artwork which carries his standard splattered paints that’s mostly brown and yellow was created on an 8 foot by 4 foot sheet of fiberboard.

2. 1936 Bugatti 57SC Atlantic

Jean Bugatti is probably not as famous as Henry Ford and yet one of his scant designs of automobiles is regarded as the highest-selling vehicle in auction history. He first developed his Type 57 cars in 1934 and just came out with 710 of them. The production came to a tragic conclusion when Bugatti perished of a car accident at the age of 30. Marketed for an unaccounted for amount of somewhere between 30 to 40 million dollars, it knocked off a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. The car was identified as “a piece of engine powered art” and was identified as by a lot of people as the most gorgeous car to be released prior to World War II.

3.Wittelsbach Diamond

At 35.56 carat, the Wittelsbach Diamond isn’t the biggest diamond in the world however its almost faultless clearness and dazzling azure color is what managed to make it get a whopping $23.4 million. Originally excavated in the former Indian Kingdom of Golkonda, the diamond is loaded with history as it is on beauty. It was among the Crown jewels of Austria and Bavaria and in 2010 was recut by its present owner to get rid of the imperfections. Four carats lighter, this angered a lot of historians who desired to contain its historical integrity.

4.Ex-Vieuxtemps - Giuseppe Guarneri Violin

Antonio Stradivari’s The Hammer used to be the biggest selling musical instrument up until the position was usurped by Guiseppe Guarneri’s Ex-Vieuxtemps by less than half a million at $3.9 million. Titled following the prominent Belgian musician and violinist Henri Vieuxtemps, he had been described by Niccolo Paganini at the age of 14 as that “boy would definitely become a great man.” Both Stradivari and Guarneri are regarded as the very best violin manufacturers that ever lived.

5. T206 Honus Wagner

More known as The Flying Dutchman, Honus Wagner is the image on the greatest selling baseball card. Sold at $2.35 million in 2007, it had been vendored 6 months after for $2.8 million, which smashed the record in auction history. Issued by American Tobacco Company from 1909 to 1911, Wagner had a problem with ATC and refused to market the card. Because of this only 50 to 200 of the T206 Honus Wagner cards were created.

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