A couple of months ago, when we first heard tell that this Porsche would be sold at auction, we brought you the news with an auction preview of RM Sotheby’s “Driven by Disruption” event. This is no normal 356, to be fair, and it certainly commands a presence with its wild “history of the universe” mural paint scheme. This car is all about history, and whether you’re a music fan or a Porsche fan, you’ve just have to love this 356. Well, as it would happen, we aren’t the only ones who think this Porsche is valuable and deserving of praise. Joplin’s 356 just sold this very evening for more than three times as much as the auction house predicted it would. That’s right, with a pre-auction estimate of $400,000 to 600,000, the 356 crossed the dais and the hammer didn’t fall until a full $1.6 million US dollars ($1.76 with buyer’s premium) won out as the high bid.
Back in September, we predicted that this Porsche would sell for well over the estimate, but that’s not to say we can predict the future, we just know a good story when we hear it. A good story is worth every penny in the collector market, you can take that advice all the way to the bank. While we weren’t quite sure it’d go as high as $1.6 million, we knew it would be over that 7-figure barrier. When you get the right group in the right room for the right car, magical things can happen. It’s still unclear if the 356 was bought by a Porsche collector, a music lover or someone with interest in both.
The bidding started out a bit slow, middling around in the low 6-figures. Things got hot when someone came in with an amped-up and excited $600K bid. After that, things got hot again for another three hundred thousand dollars worth of bidding. Once $900,000 was reached, bidding plateaued again with smaller bids coming in until the magic million was crossed. After the 356 had reached 7 figures, the bidding got fervent again, and rapidly increased to $1.6, where it would finish (a new world record for any Porsche 356 sold at a public auction). You could tell that auctioneer Max Girardo was excitable throughout the bidding process, and I’d almost dare to say that he had some fun. Mr. Girardo has to be the most talented collector car auctioneer in the game, and I’m not sure that anyone else could have helped this car reach such a price.
Other Porsche Lots Sold By RM Sotheby’s
Lot 218 – 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS Touring – Sold at $835,000
Lot 229 – 1975 Porsche 911 3.0L Turbo Coupe – Sold at $300,000
*All prices quoted without buyer’s premium.
View Comments (4)
Hallo Gert,
der Joplin Porsche 356 ist der teuerste aller Zeiten.
Gruss
Bernd
A fool and his money are soon parted. While Janis Joplin did own this Porsche, it had been painted grey subsequent to the custom paint job done by her roadie. Then it was repainted to resemble the original custom job. Ergo this is not the original custom paint job that Janis Joplin drove around. So to me it lacks true provenance to represent the kind of monetary value it realized in the auction; leaving aside its totally inconsistent with the values and attitude the "Sixties" represented.
I agree. I was a telephone bidder on this car, and I dropped out way early. I think the story is neat, the car is neat, but the artwork is indeed a re-creation, which diminishes the value tremendously in my opinion. It probably would have gone for much higher if the artwork had been original and preserved, as I'm sure I'm not the only person thinking this way.
How high do you think you would have gone had the artwork been original? We assume the buyer was not a Porsche collector but more a music lover...