Record auction 40 years ago
04/03/2019
Actually, 40 years is not that much, but in the world of classic car auctions, it was a completely different world to today. Back then, Christie's held its first classic car auction in Los Angeles and was able to beat the previous world record of USD 235,000 (!) twice, once with a Mercedes-Benz 38/250 Sport from 1929 (USD 320,000, CHF 520,000 at the time) and once with a 500K from 1936 (USD 400,000, CHF 650,000 at the time).
Of 53 cars, 38 were sold, including a Pegaso Z 102 (USD 50,000), a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing (USD 40,000) and a Packard Standard 8 Coupé from 1933 (USD 50,000).
The total turnover of the auction amounted to USD 1.5 million. Today, this would no longer be worth a press release, as several individual cars at a modern auction usually achieve 1.5 million (and considerably more). And just for comparison: the RM/Sotheby's auction last weekend in Fort Lauderdale achieved a total turnover of over USD 23 million, with well over 300 cars going under the hammer over two days.
More details were of course published in the Automobil Revue at the time.
