RM Sotheby’s Sets New Ferrari Record

This Monday, RM Sotheby’s presented a 1962 Ferrari 330 LM / 250 GTO at auction during its Marquee Week Sales of Modern and Contemporary Art. 

Every Ferrari 250 GTO is special, but this one had some specific attributes beyond simple rarity and desirability.  Chassis 3765 was the only GTO Tipo 1962 raced by Scuderia Ferrari. Its race history includes a class win and a 2nd overall finish at the 1962 Nürburgring 1000 KM. It was driven by Mike Parkes and Lorenzo Bandini for Scuderia Ferrari at the 1962 24 Hours of Le Mans, and also was runner-up in the 1965 Sicilian Hillclimb Championship. It had once been owned by a chairman of the Ferrari Club of America, and it won an FCA Platinum Award and the Coppa Bella Macchina at the Cavallino Classic, placed 2nd in the GTO class at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and received a Best of Show at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.  

And, at RM Sotheby’s on Monday evening, it set a new record price for a Ferrari at auction, selling for $51.7m.

“Celebrating this sale during Sotheby’s marquee week highlights the unparalleled stature of this Ferrari as one of the world’s most desirable objects,” said Gord Duff, Global Head of Auctions. “The result, achieved through collaboration between Ferrari, RM Sotheby’s and Sotheby’s, echoes our mutual pursuit of perfection —mirroring the very ethos Enzo Ferrari embodied when designing this car. Fetching $51.7 million, this transaction adds a new chapter to a vehicle with an unmatched legacy. Now, it ranks among the most expensive cars sold at auction, a true testament to its singular place in history.”

This sale price bests the former Ferrari high water mark of $48,405,000 set by chassis 3413GT at RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale in 2018. This car is now the second most expensive collector car ever to be sold at auction, following the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR that sold for $142.7m in 2022.

The three highest collector car auction prices of all time are now held by RM Sotheby’s. 

We’ll have a lot more to say about this sale in an upcoming issue of Linkage magazine. Learn more about the car here.

Images: RM Sotheby’s

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Jim Pickering

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