The major auction houses continued to turn in strong results in July; Silverstone Auctions' two-day sale – originally set to take place at the cancelled Silverstone Classic – bringing the top result for the month with their right-hand drive 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV selling for an impressive £1,912,500 (est. £1.8-2.4m). The livestreamed online event held behind closed doors proved to be Silverstone Auctions' highest grossing sale to date, achieving £15.8m and a 76% sell-through rate.
Both the Jaguar XJ220s on offer changed hands, while other notable sales included a 1996 Porsche 911 RS 3.8 with just 7,037 miles from new which made £315k (est. £300-350k), and a 'no-reserve' 18,275-mile 1973 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS going for £337,500 (est. £300-350k).
Photo: Remi Dargegen ©2020 Courtesy of RM Sotheby's
August traditionally signals Monterey car week in the US, and with it the auction calendar's most lucrative blue-chip sales. In 2019 the combined catalogues for the Big Three (RM Sotheby's, Bonhams and Gooding & Co) totalled some $385m, however the cancellation of this year's event forced a scaled-down approach with a mixture of timed and live online sales replacing the cocktail parties and manicured lawns of Pebble Beach.
RM Sotheby's led proceedings, posting a sale total of $30.4 million and setting a new world record for the highest price achieved at an online-only sale – their FIA GT Championship-winning 2001 Ferrari 550 GT1 fetching $4.29 million (est. $3.85-4.85m).
An ex-Bob Holbert 1959 Porsche 718 RSK wound up as the top seller at Bonhams' Quail Auction, making $2,232,500 (est. $2.8-3.2m); while Gooding briefly held the record for the most expensive car sold at an online auction when its six-carb 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB drew a mid-estimate $3.08 million.
September saw Gooding's eagerly awaited 'Passion of a Lifetime' sale played out to a select audience of in-room bidders at Hampton Court Palace, with a live stream picked up by viewers in 73 countries. All but one of the 15 cars from the single-owner collection found new homes, generating an impressive £34 million sale total. The catalogue cover star, an ex-King Leopold III of Belgium, 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports with outstanding provenance and competition history, set a new world auction record for the marque, selling for £9,535,000.
Bonhams closed the month with a sale of hypercars and classics at the elegant Bonmont Golf and Country Club overlooking Lake Geneva. Held with the public in attendance for the first time since Bonham's Paris sale in February, a one-owner 693-km 2012 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport headed the results, hammered away for a mid-estimate CHF1.84 million to an in-room bidder.
Upcoming auctions and results can be found at Glenmarch https://www.glenmarch.com/