NEW YORK CITY — Sotheby’s held a three-lot sale on June 8 offering two iconic philatelic items and a coin from the collection of shoe designer, fashion entrepreneur and philanthropist Stuart Weitzman. The three objects would net over $32 million.
Coming in at $18.9 million was a 1933 Double Eagle Coin, which now stands as the most expensive coin ever sold at auction, nearly doubling the previous record. Sotheby’s sold this example on behalf of the United States Government in 2002, when it brought $7.59 million to Weitzman. It is the only 1933 Double Eagle coin able to be owned privately by an individual. The coin broke a record for the most expensive ever sold in 2002, but was later dethroned by others, the highest of which came in 2013 with the $10,016,875 sale of a 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar at Stack’s Bowers.
The two philatelic items came in the form of a British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp, which sold for $8.3 million, and the Inverted Jenny Plate Block, which brought $4.9 million from collector David Rubenstein.
Weitzman paid $9.5 million for the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp in 2014. Though it fell short of its record this time, it still holds the record for the most expensive stamp ever sold.
At $4.9 million, the Inverted Jenny Plate Block is the second most expensive philatelic item ever sold, behind the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta.
“It has been an honor to be a custodian of these three legendary treasures and it fills me with great joy to have fulfilled a childhood dream of bringing these remarkable pieces together into one collection,” Weitzman said. “I started coin collecting to pass the time in a full leg cast at the age of 12, and later became interested in stamps when my older brother left behind the stamp book he’d started when he went to college. The passion for collecting took root immediately, and today truly marked the culmination of a life’s work. I’m delighted that the proceeds of the sale will help support a number of charitable causes and educational endeavors that are near and dear to me.”
For more information, www.sothebys.com.
