Ferrari shatters record, becomes most expensive car ever auctioned at $34.65 million

Ferrari shatters record, becomes most expensive car ever auctioned at $34.65 million
(Image credit: Twitter.com/CNBC)

Oh, you just have $34.64 million to spend on a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO? Sorry, it actually went for $34.65 million, becoming the most expensive car ever auctioned.

The 52-year-old Ferrari sold by Bonhams on Thursday beat the previous record of $31.6 million. Ferrari only made 36 GTOs, making them a hot commodity. Ferrari historian Marcel Massini told CNBC that the car "is one of the big prizes in the entire collecting world."

This GTO was the 19th one made, in 1962, and was originally owned by French race car driver Jo Schlesser. That same year, it came in second in auto racing's Tour de France. Sadly, it also crashed during a race near Paris, killing the driver, Henri Oreiller. After it was repaired, Italian car enthusiast Fabrizio Violati purchased the GTO, and it became part of his Ferrari museum, known as the Maranello Rosso Collection. Violati died in 2010, and his family sold his collection to investors for more than $100 million.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.