Collectibles

Buzz Aldrin's Apollo 11 jacket smashes auction records

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Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. wearing the jacket that sold yesterday for $2.77 million. Aldrin is pictured inside the Apollo 11 Lunar Module during the lunar landing mission. The picture was taken by Neil Armstrong, just prior to the landing on 20 July 1969.

NASA
Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. wearing the jacket that sold yesterday for $2.77 million. Aldrin is pictured inside the Apollo 11 Lunar Module during the lunar landing mission. The picture was taken by Neil Armstrong, just prior to the landing on 20 July 1969.

NASA
Aldrin's jecket is the only piece of flight-worn clothing available for private ownership from humanity's first lunar-landed mission. All other flown garments from the Apollo 11 mission are now housed in the National Air & Space Museum Collections.
Sotheby's
It’s one hell of a dress, but it was also one hell of a movie. Designed by legendary costume designer Cecil Beaton for the most important scene in one of the most anticipated movies in cinematic history, Eliza Doolittle’s dress sold for $4,400,000 at Profiles in History (now Heritage Auctions) in 2011. Even more remarkable was the fact that Beaton designed each and every gown for the 400 women who appeared in the scene, which is credited with garnering two Oscars for Beaton, including “Best Costume Design.” Some fascinating detail in the auction description.
Profiles in History / Warner Brothers
Babe Ruth hasn't played for 85 years and it is hence not surprising that some of his records are beginning to fall. From Time's obituary to him: "He was unforgettable, even when he struck out. His swing whirled him around until his slender legs were twisted beneath him. And the times when his big bat did connect were baseball’s biggest moments. The spell lasted until the Babe had trotted around the base paths, taking mincing steps on his small feet, tipping his cap to the mighty, reverent roar from the stands. Sportwriters knocked themselves out thinking up new names and superlatives for him: The Sultan of Swat, the Bambino, The Colossus of Clout."
Hunt Auctions
The jersey in which Diego Maradona scored two of the best known goals in sporting history during the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup, with the goals just four minutes apart and in front of 115,000 fans in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico. The jersey currently holds the world record for a single piece of clothing at $9.3 million (£7,142,500).
Sotheby's
Once the holder of the most expensive piece of clothing ever sold, the dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in the movie "The Seven Year Itch" was the subject of an inspired "photo opportunity" staged specifically for press photographers just prior to the release of the movie - a photo opportunity that ensured it would be published in every newspaper in the world.
Warner Brothers
The Crown Prince of Dubai, Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, pictured on his way to winning the 2012 FEI World Endurance Championships. The helmet worn by Shaikh Mohammad sold at a charity auction in Dubai for $US6,545,950 (Dh24.05 million).
Emirates Auction
Regarded by many as the dress that cost Marilyn Monroe her life, the full story of this dress, what happened and how it sold for a world record price can be found in our feature article on the sale.
NewAtlas.com
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Sotheby’s sold the jacket worn to the Moon by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin yesterday, smashing all sorts of auction records with a final price of US$2,772,500.

The other landmark piece of the "Buzz Aldrin: American Icon" auction was the metallic felt-tip marker that Aldrin used to close a circuit breaker to keep the Apollo 11 mission from ending in disaster. Estimated by Sotheby’s to sell for between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 (the same estimate as the jacket), it would have become the most expensive pen in history if it had sold, but bidding only reached $650,000 and failed to reach the reserve price.

Even though it didn’t sell, with the 25% buyers’ commission included, the $650,000 bid represented an actual bid of $812,500, which must represent some kind of record for a bid on a felt-tip pen.

Most expensive space-flown memorabilia

Aldrin's jecket is the only piece of flight-worn clothing available for private ownership from humanity's first lunar-landed mission. All other flown garments from the Apollo 11 mission are now housed in the National Air & Space Museum Collections.
Sotheby's

Aldrin’s jacket is now the most expensive space-flown piece of memorabilia ever sold at auction (or anywhere else for that matter), eclipsing the Robbins Medallion that flew with Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong to the surface of the Moon on the same mission. The medallion sold for $2,055,000 at Heritage Auctions in 2019.

Most expensive clothing

Once the holder of the most expensive piece of clothing ever sold, the dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in the movie "The Seven Year Itch" was the subject of an inspired "photo opportunity" staged specifically for press photographers just prior to the release of the movie - a photo opportunity that ensured it would be published in every newspaper in the world.
Warner Brothers

You might think that with a price of $2.77 million, the jacket might top some other list of the most expensive clothing in history, but remarkably, Buzz’s jacket struggles to get into the top 10 most expensive pieces of clothing in history, and if you include headwear, it barely makes the top 20.

Regarded by many as the dress that cost Marilyn Monroe her life, the full story of this dress, what happened and how it sold for a world record price can be found in our feature article on the sale.
NewAtlas.com

Three women's dresses have exceeded this jacket in price fetched at auction, being Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday" dress ($4.8 million), Marilyn's Seven Year Itch Subway Grate Dress ($4.5 million), and the dress that Audrey Hepburn wore as Eliza Doolittle to the Ascot Races in My Fair Lady ($4.4 million).

It’s one hell of a dress, but it was also one hell of a movie. Designed by legendary costume designer Cecil Beaton for the most important scene in one of the most anticipated movies in cinematic history, Eliza Doolittle’s dress sold for $4,400,000 at Profiles in History (now Heritage Auctions) in 2011. Even more remarkable was the fact that Beaton designed each and every gown for the 400 women who appeared in the scene, which is credited with garnering two Oscars for Beaton, including “Best Costume Design.” Some fascinating detail in the auction description.
Profiles in History / Warner Brothers

The Apollo 11 jacket does represent the highest price ever paid for a man’s jacket, topping the iconic red-and-black leather jacket worn by Michael Jackson in the "Thriller" video clip that sold for $1.8 million at Julien's Auctions in 2011.

In the male clothing area, the most significant sale behind Napoleon's hat is the red leather jacket Michael Jackson wore in his epic music video "Thriller," which went on to become the top grossing music single of all time, and the album also went on to become the highest selling album of all time. Jackson, like Monroe, was a master of iconography, and following the success of the extended video for the single, he continued to use jackets of the same design when performing the song "Thriller" for the duration of his career. It sold for $1,810,000 in 2012 at Juliens.

As far as men's clothing though, game-worn jerseys of the sporting greats are deemed far more valuable by the marketplace, with Diego Maradona’s Goal of the Century shirt (from the 1986 World Cup semi-final) selling for $9.3 million (£7,142,500) earlier this year.

The jersey in which Diego Maradona scored two of the best known goals in sporting history during the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup, with the goals just four minutes apart and in front of 115,000 fans in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico. The jersey currently holds the world record for a single piece of clothing at $9.3 million (£7,142,500).
Sotheby's

On top of that, we’re not sure whether Muhammad Ali’s "Rumble in the Jungle" world boxing title belt qualifies as a piece of clothing, but that item fetched $6.18 million last Sunday.

Babe Ruth hasn't played for 85 years and it is hence not surprising that some of his records are beginning to fall. From Time's obituary to him: "He was unforgettable, even when he struck out. His swing whirled him around until his slender legs were twisted beneath him. And the times when his big bat did connect were baseball’s biggest moments. The spell lasted until the Babe had trotted around the base paths, taking mincing steps on his small feet, tipping his cap to the mighty, reverent roar from the stands. Sportwriters knocked themselves out thinking up new names and superlatives for him: The Sultan of Swat, the Bambino, The Colossus of Clout."
Hunt Auctions

The game-worn men's clothing title had previously been attributed to a Babe Ruth New York Yankees road jersey circa 1920, which fetched $4,415,658 at SCP Auctions in May 2012, and was subsequently overtaken by another Ruth jersey in 2019 when Hunt Auctions sold a 1928-1930 New York Yankees jersey worn by Ruth for $5.64 million. But in 2015 a helmet worn by the Crown Prince of Dubai, Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, sold at a charity auction in Dubai for $US6,545,950 (Dh24.05 million). Shaikh Mohammad had worn the helmet in winning the 2012 FEI World Endurance Championships so it is in the discussion of the most expensive sports-worn items, though we normally leave out any lots that have been sold at a charity auction when compiling our statistics.

The Crown Prince of Dubai, Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, pictured on his way to winning the 2012 FEI World Endurance Championships. The helmet worn by Shaikh Mohammad sold at a charity auction in Dubai for $US6,545,950 (Dh24.05 million).
Emirates Auction

Other choice artifacts from the Aldrin Collection included three lunar-surface-flown items: a summary flight plan that fetched $819,000, a Systems Activation Checklist that sold for $567,000 and the Water Dispenser/Fire Extinguisher from the Apollo 11 Lunar Module that sold for $327,600 to become the world’s most expensive fire extinguisher.

Sotheby’s "Buzz Aldrin: American Icon" auction also broke records in that it fetched $8,184,578, becoming the most valuable space exploration sale ever held, beating Sotheby’s own record set at an auction commemorating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 on 20 July 2019.

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1 comment
NMBill
I suspect Buzz's jacket is the only item listed here that will have enduring value 100 years from now.