NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — A 1962-63 Ferrari GTO Berlinetta was sold in California on Thursday for $38,000,000, the most ever paid for a car at auction.
The price included a 10% “buyer’s premium” paid to the auction company, Bonhams.
While the sale was easily a record price for any car ever sold at auction, some experts had predicted the classic car would go for more than $50 million.
“We’ve always maintained that we would exceed the current world record and that the car would bring between $30 million and $40 million and today the GTO did just that,” said Robert Brooks, chairman of Bonhams.
More optimistic predictions were based on reports that a similar car had sold privately for more than $50 million.
The previous auction record was $30 million, paid last July in London for a 1954 Mercedes-Benz race car. That car was also sold by Bonhams.
“The GTO is the most highly sought after car in the world and was very well bought by the new owner,” said McKeel Hagerty, the president of Hagerty Insurance, a company that insures collectible cars.
In the car auction business, “well bought” is a phrase used to indicate that a car was sold for considerably less than it is worth.
