A New Record for Any Item Sold in an Online-Only sale at Sotheby's to Date: The Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science Awarded to Friedrich von Hayek - One of the greatest minds of the 20th-Century - Sells for $1.5 million

The Nobel Prize led Sotheby's 'White-Glove' Online-Only Auction Of 27 Lots from Von Hayek's Personal Collection

Auction Totals £2.04 million / $2.67 million - Quadruple the Pre-sale Estimate

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Mar 20, 2019, 09:00 ET

LONDON, March 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A new record for any item sold in an online-only sale at Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) was set yesterday when Friedrich von Hayek's Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science sold for £1.1 million / $1.5 million, almost triple its pre-sale low estimate (£400/600,000).

The previous benchmark for the most valuable item ever sold in a Sotheby's online-only sale was $800,000, achieved the only complete archive of Supreme skate decks in private hands which sold to Vancouver Collector Carson Guo in January 2019.

A new record for any item sold in an online-only sale at Sotheby’s was set when Friedrich von Hayek’s Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science sold for $1.5 million, almost triple its pre-sale low estimate. Von Hayek’s Nobel Prize, awarded for “pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations”, led Sotheby’s online-only sale of 27 lots from his personal collection which together realized $2.67 million, quadruple the pre-sale estimate.

Von Hayek's Nobel Prize, awarded for "pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations", led Sotheby's online-only sale of 27 lots from his personal collection which together realized £2.04 million / $2.67 million, quadruple the pre-sale estimate (£445/670,000).

The auction was a 'White Glove" sale, with each and every lot selling for many multiples of their high estimate, including a collection of "Desktop ephemera", estimated at just £200-300, that reached £87,500 / $114,546.

In total, more than 1,000 bids were placed on the 27 lots.

Sotheby's specialist Dr. Gabriel Heaton said: "Friedrich von Hayek's influence is perhaps still unmatched by any other Economics laureate. His theories, which have influenced some of the major political moments in Western history, continue to resonate today as demonstrated by the extraordinary demand we witnessed for his personal collection at Sotheby's."

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Online only Sales at Sotheby's
"Friedrich von Hayek: His Nobel Prize and Family Collection" is part of a robust calendar of online-only sales presented by Sotheby's throughout the year. Recent successes in Sotheby's online-only sales include 'Important Picasso Ceramics Online', which was 100% sold and achieved a total in excess of the high estimate. An online-only sale of Original Film Posters is currently open for bidding, and from tomorrow Prints from the Collection of Marina Picasso will also go live on Sotheby's website.

About Sotheby's
Sotheby's has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby's became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973), India (1992) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby's presents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby's BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from anywhere in the world. Sotheby's offers collectors the resources of Sotheby's Financial Services, the world's only full-service art financing company, as well as the collection, artist, estate & foundation advisory services of its subsidiary, Art Agency, Partners. Sotheby's presents private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby's Global Fine Art Division, and three retail businesses: Sotheby's Wine, Sotheby's Diamonds, and Sotheby's Home, the online marketplace for interior design. Sotheby's has a global network of 80 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).