• Art An Andy Warhol's 'Marilyn' becomes the most expensive painting of the 20th century

A 1955 Mercedes of which there are only

two examples

was auctioned in early May for 135 million euros ($143 million), nearly tripling the previous record for a car sale, RM Sotheby's said on Thursday.

The

1955 Mercedes Coupé 300 SLR Uhlenhaut

was sold on May 5 at

a confidential auction

at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart (Germany) in cooperation between the Sotheby's subsidiary for luxury vehicles and the German manufacturer.

Awarded for 135 million euros, the operation

almost triples the previous record,

reached in 2018 by a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sold by the same auction house for more than 48 million dollars (45.4 million euros).

In addition, the Mercedes "300 SLR ranks

among the ten most expensive objects ever sold at auction,"

celebrated RM Sotheby's in a statement published on Thursday.

absolute record

According to the classification made by AFP of works of art sold at auction in recent years,

the absolute record is held by the painting "Salvator Mundi" by Leonardo da Vinci,

awarded in November 2017 for 450.3 million dollars by Christie's. In New York.

Right after that comes "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn," Andy Warhol's portrait of actress Marilyn Monroe, also sold this month for $195 million by Christie's, becoming the 20th-century work of art ever sold at public auction. .

Described by RM Sotheby's as

the "most beautiful car in the world",

the vehicle that was owned by Mercedes-Benz was sold to a private collector.

The money from its sale "will be used to launch a Mercedes-Benz fund for training and research scholarships for young people in environmental sciences and decarbonization," said the RM Sotheby's statement.

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