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

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

*By YPB Team · Published September 27, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-most-jaw-dropping-auction-sale-in-history*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

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

Tags: art, historical, records, collectibles, auctions