A pair of sneakers worn during Michael Jordan’s “Last Dance” with the Chicago Bulls is expected to sell for between $2 million and $4 million at auction next month, Sotheby’s announced.
The shoes were worn by Jordan during the second half of Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals. Jordan scored 37 points that night, leading the Bulls to a 93-88 win over the Utah Jazz. The Bulls won the NBA Finals by a 4-2 margin, giving Jordan his sixth and final championship.
Sotheby’s said the shoes were given to a Utah Jazz ball boy who tended to the visitors’ locker room. The ball boy asked Jordan for his shoes after finding Jordan’s lost jacket.
Jordan signed the shoes and thanked the ball boy for his services, Sotheby’s said.
The shoe is considered a “Bred Air Jordan,” which is short for black and red. Sotheby’s said earlier in Jordan’s career Bred Air Jordan shoes were banned by the NBA because the colors violated the league’s policy.
Nike would use the league’s policy to sell the shoe as a rebellion against power.
Sotheby’s noted that the shoes up for auction marked the last time Jordan wore the Bred Air Jordan shoes.
Jordan’s 1997-98 season became the focus of a 10-part ESPN and Netflix documentary, “The Last Dance.” The documentary aired during April and May 2020, giving ESPN much-needed new content at a time leagues were shut down due to the pandemic.
The shoes won’t be the first Jordan item to go for millions at auction. A road No. 23 Chicago Bulls jersey worn by Jordan sold for $10 million last September. The jersey, complete with an NBA Finals emblem, was worn by the basketball legend during Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals.
This article originally appeared on SimpleMost and was syndicated by MediaFeed.
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You won’t believe what these collectibles sold for at auction
Last August, a record price of $48.4 million was paid for a collector car sold at public auction. The car was a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO and the sale was RM Sotheby’s in Monterey, California.
For the record, the previous record for a collector car at public auction was $38.115 million in 2014 for another 250 GTO, this one selling at Bonhams at The Quail in Carmel, California.
Sotheby’s
But where, you might wonder, does that $48.4 million purchase rank among other collectibles sold at auctions? Artnet.compublished just such a list.
“The value of art often feels like an impossible thing to measure,” the art-centric website reported. “But the auction business has consistently shown us that everything has a price — and then, a few years later, often an even higher one. So what makes a work of art command millions, or even hundreds of millions?”
Here is the list of most-expensive things purchased at auction, what they sold for, where and when they sold
Sotheby’s
- Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci
- Auction price: $450.3 million
- Auction house: Christie’s sale in New York City in November 2017
Wikipedia
- L’homme au doigt by Alberto Giacometti
- Auction price: $141.3 million
- Auction house: Christie’s New York in May 2015
Phil Roeder, Des Moines Art Center, Flickr
- Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) by David Hockney,
- Auction price: $90.3 million
- Auction house: Christie’s New York in November 2018
Regan Vercruysse / Flickr
- The CTF Pink Star (59.6 carats)
- Auction price: $71.2 million
- Auction house: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, April 2017
kuppa_rock / iStock
- 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO
- Auction price: $48.4 million
- Auction house: RM Sotheby’s Monterey, August 2018
Sotheby’s
- Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 by Georgia O’Keeffe
- Auction price: $44.4 million
- Auction house: Sotheby’s New York, November 2014
Indianapolis Museum of Art
- Marie-Antoniette’s Pendant
- Auction price: $36 million
- Auction house: Sotheby’s Geneva, November 2018
Sotheby’s
- 1794 Flowing Hair dollar
- Auction price: $10 million
- Auction house: Bowers, January 2013
Stack’s Bowers Galleries
- British Guiana One-Cent Magenta
- Auction price: $9.48 million
- Auction house: Sotheby’s New York, June 2014
Sotheby’s
- Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Subway Dress’ from The Seven Year Itch
- Auction price: $5.5 million
- Auction house: Profiles in History auction at Beverly Hills, June 2011
Sabrinap2015 / Wikimedia
- Rhine II by Andreas Gursky
- Auction price: $4.34 million
- Auction house: Christie’s New York, November 2011
MoMA
- Soviet Vostok 3KA-2 Space Capsule
- Auction price: $2.9 million
- Auction house: Sotheby’s New York, April 2011
Sotheby’s
- 1945 Romanee Conti
- Auction price: $558,000 (two bottles of the ’45 vintage sold at the auction — one brought $558,000 and the other $496,000)
- Auction house: Sotheby’s New York, October 2018
Sotheby’s
- Dracula (1931 starring Bela Lugosi)
- Auction price: $525,800
- Auction house: Heritage Auctions, Texas, November 2017
Heritage Auctions
- Stefano Canturi Barbie
- Auction price: $302,000
- Auction house: Christie’s New York, October 2010 (Doll was custom designed by jeweler Stefano Canturi and was wearing a 1-carat pink diamond necklace surrounded by 3 carats of white diamonds)
This article originally appeared on ClassicCars.comand was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
Alpha / Flickr
DepositPhotos.com
Featured Image Credit: sothebys.com.
