Yahoo Finance This rare Leica camera sold for a world record £2.1 million
A rare near 100-year-old camera has sold at auction for more than £2.1 million – making it the most valuable camera in the world.
The Leica camera, one of only three made in 1923, was priced at €400,000 (£355,200) at the auction in Vienna but quickly became the subject of a bidding war.
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In the end, an anonymous private collector from Asia placed the winning bid of €2.4 million (£2.13 million).
The Leica 0-series camera, with the production number of 122, was said to be in an almost perfect shape.
The camera was produced by Ernst Leitz in 1923 and was part of a series of 25 prototype cameras before the 0-series was officially put on the market two years later.
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Only three of the original Leica cameras are known to still exist.
The new record holder takes the place of another Leica camera, which coincidentally was also auctioned at the Westlicht Photographica Auction.
In 2012, a Leica 0-series prototype with the production number 116 was sold for €2.16 million (£1.92 million).
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Leica Camera AG was founded in 1914 by Ernst Leitz, the name derived from the first three letters of Leitz’s surname and the first two of the word camera: lei-ca.
Ernst Leitz II, who took over the management of the company in 1920, responded to the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933 by helping Jews escape Germany by assigning hundreds to overseas Leica sales offices, including many Jews who were not Leica employees.
