Pope Francis' M-A auctioned...

[Winedemonium]

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... with a hammer price of EUR 6,500,000 today at the Leitz Auction in Vienna, together with a 1.2/50 Noctilux 'reissue' in chrome. Both unique of course. 

https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/Leica-M-A-no.5000000-Pope-Francis/A02119

It was one of those rare times an auction lot bidding was properly exciting, as the estimate was EUR 60,000~70,000, and the starting price had been 30,000 when pre-bidding had opened. The lot took a little while to get going, but as it crawled toward a million, bidding got going. 

Well, 'In keeping with his dedication to charity and social causes, the Pope has chosen to auction this exceptional Leica set at the Leitz Photographica Auction, with all proceeds directed toward helping those in need', there was no buyer's premium on the lot, and, no doubt, a wealthy collector is very happy with winning this special set.

 

Is this is a record price for a camera?

[maxpower]

https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/Leica-0-Series-no.105-Oscar-Barnack-Nettel-Camera/AI-40-37555

This was EUR 14,400,000, only more than double that! Suddenly I feel poorer than I am. 

[pippy]

7 minutes ago, Winedemonium said:

... with a hammer price of EUR 6,500,000 today at the Leitz Auction in Vienna, together with a 1.2/50 Noctilux 'reissue' in chrome. Both unique of course. 

https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/Leica-M-A-no.5000000-Pope-Francis/A02119

It was one of those rare times an auction lot bidding was properly exciting, as the estimate was EUR 60,000~70,000, and the starting price had been 30,000 when pre-bidding had opened. The lot took a little while to get going, but as it crawled toward a million, bidding got going. 

Well, 'In keeping with his dedication to charity and social causes, the Pope has chosen to auction this exceptional Leica set at the Leitz Photographica Auction, with all proceeds directed toward helping those in need', there was no buyer's premium on the lot, and, no doubt, a wealthy collector is very happy with winning this special set.

 

Is this is a record price for a camera?

Nice article and good news for the charities concerned into the bargain. Thanks for posting the link.

Philip.

[UliWer]

3 hours ago, Winedemonium said:

Is this is a record price for a camera?

Well, you might call it so, if you mean a single camera. The record price of 14.4 Mio was actually paid for two cameras, the Leica No.105 and a Nettel camera formerly owned by Oskar Barnack. And an M-A is a rather mundane model still produced today whilst the No. 105 was a camera of unique historical significance. 

[willeica]

1 hour ago, UliWer said:

Well, you might call it so, if you mean a single camera. The record price of 14.4 Mio was actually paid for two cameras, the Leica No.105 and a Nettel camera formerly owned by Oskar Barnack. And an M-A is a rather mundane model still produced today whilst the No. 105 was a camera of unique historical significance. 

The price is for the provenance and not the camera per se. This is the most expensive Leica M ever sold and also the second most expensive Leica or, indeed, camera ever sold. Whoever presented the late Pope Francis with this camera certainly did the charities supported by the Catholic Church a great favour. Pope Francis probably barely looked at this. Popes and Heads of State would regularly receive gifts, but I doubt if anyone at the Vatican realised that this one would be so valuable.

William 

[250swb]

I imagine people at the Vatican thought ‘let’s have a clear out’, and very good luck to the charity side, well done. But that much money for a celebrity camera? I hope it came with examples of images captured with it by the Pope to show he used it, and what is he using now for his film camera a Pentax SP, a Nikon F, an M3?

[UliWer]

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2 hours ago, willeica said:

charities supported by the Catholic Church

How do you know?

Other than with former charity auctions there is no information available which specific charity might profit from the auction.

The camera might have been delivered to the auction by the Vatican but also by some civil heir of the late pope Francis. So we do not know who might be responsible to decide where the auction sum goes nor do we know who might be the recipient of the sum.

Similar - though not equal as it did not qualify as a charity auction - was the  "M3 Queen Elizabeth" (Lot 130 which went for 156000 €). We do not know whether it was given to the auction by the Chrown Estate or by anybody else, so we also don't know who profits. 

Edited 1 hour ago by UliWer
I changed "Royal Estate" to "Chrown Estate"