If you can believe it, 2023 is coming to a close, and the people who make RM Sotheby’s auctions and events possible are readying themselves for a well-earned holiday break. The team is mighty proud to have accomplished all that RM has done in the last 12 months. As of 31 December, we’ll have put on 32 total auctions via live, online, and Sotheby’s Sealed, selling over 1,119 cars and 2,001 automobilia lots. If you do some quick math, this averages out to around 35 cars per auction, but our auctions are not as simple nor made quantifiable by just dividing some numbers. Sometimes, in the case of most of Sotheby’s Sealed offerings, an auction may be one very special car, or one of the significant number of private sales cars our private sales team handles. Sometimes, it’s an auction dedicated to automobilia, like this year’s Charles Leclerc for Emilia-Romagna! auction, Full Throttle – The Schumacher Collection, or Nigel Mansell’s Legacy Collection. Or it can be over 200 cars crossing the block over an auction weekend, like our offerings in Monterey during Monterey’s Car Week.

The numbers are important, of course. As a company, we do count on the numbers to make all of what we do possible, but it’s really the once-in-a-lifetime, jaw-dropping moments that really capture us, making all of the hard work we put into every auction, every year, worth it.

But it’s difficult to pin which 2023 event stands out as most significant. Perhaps you, reading this, have your own thoughts. Certainly up for consideration is “The One” auction, in mid-November, of the 1962 Ferrari 330 LM / GTO 250 by Scaglietti. This outstanding, one-off Ferrari—one of the few ever used by Scuderia Ferrari itself for racing before it was returned to something more suitable to drive for the everyday enthusiast/consumer—garnered quite a bit of interest from the public and internally in our offices. The unforgettable Instagram reel we posted in mid-October alone has reached over 900,000 views as of writing this. We read the anticipation in the comments, in the emails, and inquiries on the car. And we, too, watched the New York sale with bated breath, waiting to see what the final hammer would bring. At $51.7 million, it became the second-highest price achieved for a car at auction and the most valuable Ferrari ever sold.

Ferrari was the talk of the automotive sphere when RM presented the barn-find Lost & Found Collection at our Monterey sale in August. The long-lost and forgotten Ferraris themselves piqued the interest of collectors and media alike. But the one to steal the show, which still remains a hot topic months later, is the 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Spider Series I by Pinin Farina. The second Mondial ever built had suffered substantially from fire damage after a racing crash and was offered in “as found” condition. It fetched a jaw-dropping $1,875,000, while the collection altogether resulted in over $16.5 million in sales. Monterey, always a treat to experience, especially in our 26th year there, came away as our third most successful sale at the venue to date.

We also could not be more proud of the RM Auto Restoration crew and shop for having achieved a second consecutive Best of Show win at Pebble Beach with a stunning, impeccably restored 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster. The second win in a row brings the shop’s total Pebble Best of Show wins to eight, a truly remarkable feat for the very talented craftsmen.

Amelia Island was a bittersweet event this year, as, after 24 years, we held our final auction on the island, but RM did come away breaking our own record for the highest one-day total, closing at over $70 million in sales. Kick-starting the sale was a special tribute auction hosted by our very own Rob Myers, which raised over $1.2 million for Spina Bifida of Jacksonville, a charity long supported by the Amelia Island Concours founders Bill and Jane Warner. It was a fitting farewell and we are exceptionally proud of what we have achieved in Amelia Island over the years. This isn’t the last of RM in Florida though, as we return to the Sunshine State for our two-day Miami auction as part of the inaugural ModaMiami event festivities. The auction dates are 1-2 March, with the ModaMiami ultimate car show and luxury event 2-3 March.

Viva Las Vegas—we always strive to innovate, create, and build new experiences for our clients, and RM put on an auction and show unlike anything seen before in the auction space. The Official Auction of the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix lived up to its projected hype with its awe-inspiring theatrical presentation at Wynn Las Vegas’ Awakening Theater. Starting with the extraordinary James Bond-like entrance of Sotheby’s principal auctioneer for the sale, Oliver Barker, from the ceiling of the theater, each of the 39 lots up for offer were treated to a spectacular presentation of Vegas-like show lights and performers, including the darling of the evening: Sir Lewis Hamilton’s first-winning Mercedes, the 2013 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 W04 car. Over 20 minutes of Barker’s banter with the audience, including a bidder’s suspenseful heat-of-the-moment phone call bids that kept dropping while mid-flight, ended with a record-breaking sale of $18,815,000—becoming the most valuable modern Formula One car ever sold at auction.

Shortly after Vegas, RM Sotheby’s had the privilege to not only reveal the secrets of The White Collection (with the help of Porsche aficionado Magnus Walker) but also sell the long mysterious Porsche collection, offering over 50 specially selected, rare, and well sought-after white Porsches and over 500 items of automobilia unlike anything you could find in the world. The 2015 Porsche 918 ‘Weissach’ Spyder shattered all expectations when it sold for $3,937,500—nearly doubling the previous sale record of the model.

And in other record-breaking, attention-capturing moments, Paris presented the sale of a one-of-a-kind 2022 Bugatti Chiron Profilée going for €9,792,500, becoming the most valuable new car ever sold at auction, with the auction itself being the most successful auction of any auction house to be held in Paris. Later in the year, we also celebrated 100 Years of Le Mans, one of the most prestigious car races in the world, with the Le Mans Centenary sale, where a beautiful 1955 Ferrari 121 LM Spider by Scaglietti captured our hearts and €5,742,500.

Sotheby’s Sealed also celebrated Sotheby’s 50 years in Asia with two exceptional Ferraris sold separately in Hong Kong. The first, in April, was none other than Michael Schumacher’s race-winning Ferrari F1-2000, critical to helping the German earn his first F1 Championship with the Scuderia, in the Schumacher – The Making of a Legend sale. The second, Maranello’s best kept secret, was auctioned in October: the Giallo Modena F50. Other incredible, noteworthy offerings from our Private Sales division included a one-of-nine, low-mileage Ferrari Enzo in Argento Nürburgring 101/C, an eye-catching 2014 McLaren P1 in the prismatic MSO Pacific Blue paint, and a 1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT Lightweight, driven to victory at Goodwood in 1960 by Sir Stirling Moss.

As we prepare for the New Year, 2024 is looking to be another year for RM Sotheby’s to test the scope of how automotive auctions are conducted while expanding our footprint around the world. ModaMiami is gearing up to become the ultimate car show on America’s East Coast. That same month, we’ll present our first-ever auction in Dubai, further establishing our presence in the Middle East. Our Monaco auction also returns for its biennial presentation. And stay tuned for other exciting events we plan to fill our calendars, as well as yours, with.

Thank you for being a part of the excitement of 2023, and we look forward to bringing you the best of cars, collections, and auctions unlike any other in the New Year.