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What is the most jaw-dropping auction sale in history?

By YPB Team

Paintings, gold coins, racing cars and two dinosaur skeletons whose hammer prices made the evening news.

  1. Ferrari 250 GTO — ranked #11
    Ferrari 250 GTO
    The 1960s Ferrari racer that set car auction records at RM Sotheby's.
    1000pts
  2. Salvator Mundi — ranked #22
    Salvator Mundi
    The Leonardo da Vinci painting of Christ that became the most expensive artwork ever sold, at Christie's in 2017.
    927pts
  3. Dorothy's ruby slippers — ranked #33
    Dorothy's ruby slippers
    A pair of Judy Garland's slippers from The Wizard of Oz, stolen in 2005 and auctioned by Heritage in 2024.
    709pts
  4. Codex Leicester — ranked #44
    Codex Leicester
    Leonardo da Vinci's scientific notebook, bought by Bill Gates at Christie's in 1994.
    708pts
  5. Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé — ranked #55
    Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé
    One of two 1955 racing coupés, sold by Mercedes at a secret RM Sotheby's auction in 2022.
    599pts
  6. Shakespeare First Folio — ranked #66
    Shakespeare First Folio
    The 1623 first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, sold at Christie's in 2020.
    599pts
  7. Stan the T. rex — ranked #77
    Stan the T. rex
    A Tyrannosaurus skeleton from South Dakota that Christie's sold for $31.8 million in October 2020.
    466pts
  8. Portrait of Dr. Gachet — ranked #88
    Portrait of Dr. Gachet
    Van Gogh's portrait of his doctor, a record-breaker at Christie's in 1990.
    466pts
  9. Honus Wagner T206 card — ranked #99
    Honus Wagner T206 card
    The rare 1909–11 baseball card of the Pirates shortstop, long the holy grail of collectors.
    466pts
  10. SUE the T. rex — ranked #1010
    SUE the T. rex
    The Tyrannosaurus rex Chicago's Field Museum won at Sotheby's in 1997.
    466pts
  11. Magna Carta (1297) — ranked #1111
    Magna Carta (1297)
    One of the few surviving 13th-century copies of the charter, sold at Sotheby's New York in 2007.
    466pts
  12. 1933 Double Eagle — ranked #1212
    1933 Double Eagle
    The only privately ownable example of the $20 gold coin the US Mint melted down, sold at Sotheby's in 2021.
    0pts
  13. British Guiana 1c magenta — ranked #1313
    British Guiana 1c magenta
    The world's only known copy of an 1856 stamp, sold at Sotheby's in 2021.
    0pts

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