Steve McQueen’s most famous motorbike, the 1970 Husqvarna four hundred Cross he rode throughout Bruce Brown’s 1970 sense-suitable motorcycle film, is offered at auction on any Sunday the weekend for $230,500.This is the tale of how this motorcycle sold for $1500 in 2008 without anybody knowing it was owned utilizing the world’s maximum paid actor; then, it went to public sale five years in the past with the McQueen connection verified, yet could not meet its $80,000 reserve price. This time even though the bike went to public sale with irrefutable proof that it became the bike-ridden employing McQueen in the cult film, On Any Sunday, the records tumbled.
Fetching $230,500 at Bonhams Barber Museum Sale on October 6, 2018, the 400cc two-stroke single became the most high-priced Husqvarna ever offered (formerly any other ex-McQueen four hundred Cross at $144,500), the maximum highly-priced motocross motorbike ever bought (the identical bike – $one hundred forty-four,500), the leading costly dirt bike ever bought (preceding document $181,500 for a 1930 Harley-Davidson Factory DAH hillclimber), and the second leading expensive -stroke motorbike ever bought.
McQueen has now owned the three most high-priced two-strokes ever sold at auction, with the file for a stroke motorbike being $276,000 for a Scott Flying Squirrel restored with the aid of McQueen’s mate, the artist Kenny Howard, aka Von Dutch. Remarkably, without its McQueen ownership and On Any Sunday starring function, this Husqvarna could still be worth the $1500 it offered for a decade in the past, so this story superbly illustrates the significance of provenance to the value of any item at public sale, and specifically, the importance of excessive-profile media provenance.
McQueen’s feats on the public sale block
Suppose any residing creatures have had something corresponding to the legendary Midas touch, which legend tells us Dionysus bestowed on the King of Phrygia (allowing him to show whatever he touched into gold). In that case, Terrence Stephen McQueen is certainly one of them. McQueen’s megastar first-rate way that the various items he has handled are finally worth several orders of significance extra at public sale. Search the photo gallery for this newsletter and our 2014 feature Steve McQueen’s Midas Touch, poised to strike again, and you’ll discover dozens of examples of McQueen’s belongings having commanded expenses, often their real worth or “e-book value” without his provenance.
