At $13.3 million, this jersey becomes the most expensive sports object ever seen at auction

Un nouveau record. imageBROKER.com – imageBROKER/McPHOTO/Klaus Stei

Un maillot de la légende américaine du baseball Babe Ruth a atteint jeudi le record de l'objet sportif le plus cher jamais vu aux enchères, alors que la vente n'est même pas encore terminée.

The highest bid on Thursday for the New York Yankees jersey was $13.3 million, including fees and commissions.

The sale, organized online by Heritage Auctions, will not end until August 24, which means that the price could still climb between now and then. Experts at Heritage Auctions have estimated that the bidding could go as high as $30 million. The owner of the lot still has the option to set a minimum price higher than the highest bid, Heritage said.

He would then run the risk of not selling his property. As it stands, the jersey is already above all the records set in recent years for sports collectibles. The top currently belongs to a baseball card representing another Yankees player, Mickey Mantle, acquired for $12.6 million in August 2022, at the end of a sale also organized by Heritage Auctions.

It breaks the record for Michael Jordan's jersey

As for equipment worn during one or more matches, the highest mark was set, in September 2022, by the jersey worn by Michael Jordan during the first game of the NBA Finals in 1998. It was sold for $10.1 million at a sale of the house Sotheby's, in September 2022.

A sign of the rise of this market, before 2022, no sports collectible had yet exceeded the symbolic threshold of ten million dollars. The jersey that was promised the record was worn by Babe Ruth (1895-1948) during a historic game against the Chicago Cubs, during the final (World Series) in 1932.

Legend has it that the player pointed in the direction he wanted to send the ball, before hitting a home run, that is to say sending it out of bounds, to the predicted spot. The Yankees would win the game and the final in four innings (4-0).