BMW has announced that one of 99 sedans from the M850i xDrive Gran Coupe The 8 X Jeff Koons series just found a new owner who paid $475,000 for it. Artist Jeff Koons was present in person at the auction and signed the rare car before it was sold.
A regular BMW 850i like this starts around $100,000 in the United States, while the Koons Edition comes in at $350,000. As such, you could say this art car cost its buyer what five normal 8-Series would. Then again, this is probably not a valid way to estimate worth of art pieces.
Unlike all other examples, this one comes signed personally by Jeff Koons on the b-pillar area. Sure, all art cars from this series bear the artist’s autograph on the center console, but that one is applied by industrial means and not by hand. Furthermore, this car is the last in batch, making it even more valuable for collectors.
The automaker announced the special edition in mid-February this year. Jeff Koons went with a classical comic style for both the exterior and cabin. It takes around 200 hours for two dozen artists to finish painting a single car body like this.
According to BMW, the entire batch was sold out within three weeks despite the hefty premium.