RM Sotheby’s Auction at Monterey Car Week: A Dominating Game-Changer

Unbeatable, invincible, impregnable. RM Sotheby’s made a bold statement at Monterey Car Week. Not satisfied with bringing the best lineup of cars (with $212,295,000 in bids, the only auction to surpass $200,000,000), the day before the event, they announced with great fanfare — rightly so — the sale of the Indianapolis Speedway Museum collection, including the 1955 Mercedes-Benz W196 Monza Streamliner, estimated at $50,000,000-70,000,000. Later that evening, a second major announcement followed: RM Sotheby’s would organize the auction of the Rudi Klein collection, a “mythical” assembly of cars, including three Miuras and the famous 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Coupé “Caracciola”. All barn finds, all in the same family’s hands since the 1960s, and hidden from the public for at least three decades. With these announcements, RM sent a strong message to the market: the world doesn’t end at Monterey Car Week.

This year, RM offered the same number of cars as last year (201 in both editions), sold one more vehicle (169 compared to 168 in 2023), with a slightly higher sell-through rate: 84.08% versus 83.58%. The estimated value was slightly lower at $212,295,000 (compared to $216,100,000 last year), but at the end of the three-day event, total sales were slightly higher: $154,004,680 compared to $150,758,500 last year, with the average price rising from $897,372 to $911,271. Even the no-reserve cars performed better: 111 this year versus 89 last year.