Mar 2, 2023
By: BI India BureauThe Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index (KFLII) 2022 revealed the top-selling luxury items that people forked out money for. Apart from the usual suspects like diamonds and cars, a painting, an old coin, and even ancient furniture made it to the list. Take a look at the items:
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Anything featuring yesteryear star Marilyn Monroe is iconic, but few things are as popular, or expensive, as artist Andy Warhol’s acrylic painting of Monroe. Sold for a whopping $195 million (about ₹1,609 crore), it’s the most expensive 20th-century artwork ever to sell at an auction.
Credit: Economic-Times
Few can afford a Mercedes, but even fewer can shell out $143 million (about ₹1,180 crore) for it. That’s the amount paid by an ultra high networth individual for a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe. Only two 300 such cars were ever built by Mercedes-Benz.
Credit: Conde-Naste/Mercdes-Benz
The Williamson Pink Star diamond ring includes a fancy vivid pink diamond weighing over 11 carats, flanked by trapeze-cut diamonds, embellished with brilliant-cut diamonds of pink tint, and mounted in 18-karat pink and white gold. It was sold for $57.7 million or about ₹476 crore.
Credit: Sothebys
The De Beers Blue is the largest vivid blue diamond ever to appear at an auction. It fetched $57.5 million or about ₹472 crore, making it one of the highest prices ever achieved for a diamond at auction. At this price, diamonds are everyone’s best friend!
Credit: Forbes
Though people usually dispose of old furniture, the opposite is true in the case of furniture from the Ming Dynasty. A magnificent and rare Late Ming dynasty folding horseshoe-back armchair sold for $15.9 million (about ₹131 crore) — a world auction record for a Chinese chair.
Credit: Sothebys
Time is money, literally, when it comes to Swiss luxury brand Patek Philippe’s watches. One of their vintage pieces, a Gobbi Milano-signed Patek Philippe sold for $7.7 million (about ₹635 crore). Patek Philippe printed Gobbi Milano on the dials of watches sold through Gobbi, a distinguished jewelry and watch store founded in 1842.
Credit: Sothebys
The Half Eagle is a United States coin composed almost entirely of gold that was in circulation from 1795 to 1929. It’s the first gold coin minted by the United States, and originally denominated $5. Currently though, it was sold for $4.6 million (about ₹37 crore).
Credit: Wikipedia
Expensive wine is a tale as old as time. At least in the case of the 2007 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti — a red wine with a smoky, tobacco-like quality along with an emphasis on red cherries sold for $361,000 (about ₹29 lakh). Methuselah implies a wine bottle larger than the standard size.
Credit: Sothebys
It’s not bagwati… but it is one of the world’s most rare, and most expensive, handbags. Made from dyed, hand-painted crocodile leather, it sports an 18-karat white-gold hardware with a lock and clasp set with 258 diamonds. It sold for $353k or about ₹29 lakh.
Credit: Rebag
You won’t be tempted to drink away your troubles with a whisky as rare, or expensive, as The Reach by The Macallan. Sold for $300,000 (about ₹24 crore), the 81-year-old whisky is crafted from a single, sherry-seasoned oak cask and is the oldest expression released by The Macallan to date.
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