New world record at WestLicht: Leica 0-series for € 2.16 million!

The Leica madness goes on! On this weekend the Vienna based auction house WestLicht established a new world record for the most expensive ever sold camera: A Leica 0-series was sold for over 2 million € (about 2.8 million US$)

Rare 0-series goes to anonymous bidder

€ 2.16 million (including buyer’s premium) paid an anonymous bidder for the 89-year-old collector’s item and broke the last year’s record.

The starting price of the new record holder was ”only” 300,000 € , which was driven in a thrilling bidding war between room, internet and telephone bidders to the new world record.

The camera was built in 1923 and made as one of 25 pre-production models before it went into mass production two years later. Today, only twelve of the test cameras have been preserved.

Perspective for following auctions

“Until a relatively short time it would have been unthinkable that a camera can realise a price of one million euros.” shares the auction house and confirms that the interest for old Leica cameras steadily increases.

We are looking forward to the next auctions, like Westlicht or Tamarkin for more treasures and records.

Here are the complete results of the 21th Westlicht auction.

And here’s a video of the bidding war: