The best price of the year in collectible automobile auctions is that of a '62 Ferrari 330LM/250 GTO, bodied by Scaglietti, which fetched close to €48.4 million at Sotheby's RM auctions in New York in November. A vehicle adorned in China Red paint that serves as an emblematic example: it is among the 34 GTOs produced with a 1962 body style and the sole one initially outfitted with a 4-liter engine. It is the second most expensive car ever sold at auction, trailing only the 1955 Mercedes 300 Slr Unlenhaut, one of just two remaining prototypes owned by the German firm, which sold for a staggering €135 million in May 2022. Generally speaking, beyond the historic brand, high-priced automobiles must be one-of-a-kind works of art with uncommon characteristics; they are almost never standard. Pre-war vehicles such as Duesenberg, Bugatti, and Alfa Romeo were among the best-priced cars, akin to antiques in that what distinguishes them is objective rarity, remarkable condition of preservation, and, if feasible, a history known from the beginning. However, collectors' interest is migrating to modern supercars. Like the MC12 racing version of 2007, the most powerful Maserati ever made, existing in only 12 copies adapted from the brand's GT1 racing car, will be offered at auction by Sotheby's RM auctions with an estimate of 2.8-3.5 million on January 31 in Paris. Regarding the mid-to-low price segment, which includes automobiles from the 1980s to the 1990s priced at several tens of thousands of euros, Mercedes appears to be gaining popularity not only in Europe but also in the Middle East and East.
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