A spectacularly rare Mercedes-Benz has sold for a remarkable $142 million, making it the world’s most expensive vehicle.
The 1955 Mercedes 300 SLR Coupe, dubbed the “Mona Lisa of Cars,” was acquired last month in a private, invite-only auction held by RM Sotheby’s. Only two of the cars were ever produced, and they were created by Daimler-Benz motorsport head Rudolf Uhlenhaut. It was formerly owned by Mercedes-Benz, who had no intention of selling it until Simon Kidston became involved.
At the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the winning bidder was a British vehicle dealer. He told Forbes that he bought the coupe for a customer after a year and a half of attempting to persuade the carmaker to auction it off.
“If you had asked classic car experts and top collectors over the past half a century to name the most desirable car in the world, there’s a good chance that they would have come up with the same model: the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR,” Kidston told the magazine, before touching on his lobbying efforts. “If you don’t ask, you’ll never know. A long-standing relationship with the Mercedes-Benz Museum helped, but even after 18 months of patient lobbying, we didn’t know if or how they would consider letting the 300 SLR out of captivity until just before it happened. For everyone involved, and especially the new owner whom we represented, this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy the Mona Lisa of cars.”
The proceeds from the auction will reportedly go to a Mercedes-Benz-created charitable youth fund.