All expectations for WestLicht’s 21st camera auction were exceeded on May 12. For the fifth time, the world record for the most expensive camera ever sold was broken at the firm’s auction with a winning bid of $2,774,191, including buyer’s premium.

The third of the 629 lots to be auctioned, with a starting price of $385,000, was an extremely rare exemplar of the Leica 0-Series, a test camera from the year 1923. Only 25 examples of these cameras were produced by Leitz to test the market for 35mm cameras. In an exciting bidding war among the room, phone and Internet bidders, the price of the camera climbed to a new world record. The bidder who secured the rare exemplar would like to remain anonymous.

A complete review of the sale will appear in a future issue. ‼i>WD