Michael Schumacher memorabilia fetches over £2m at auction

Michael Schumacher memorabilia fetches over £2MILLION at auction as buyers splash out £600,000 more than expected – after the F1 icon was described as ‘a case without hope’ nearly ten years after his skiing accident

• The auction in California sold 159 items of Michael Schumacher memorabilia  
• The F1 icon won a joint record seven world titles during his glittering career 
• Schumacher, 54, suffered a life-threatening brain injury while skiing in 2013

Michael Schumacher memorabilia fetched a whopping £2million at auction on Tuesday, as fans and collectors splashed out on artefacts from the German’s glittering Formula One career.

From helmets and racing suits to bottles of champagne, RM Sotheby’s auction ‘Full Throttle – The Schumacher Collection’ put 159 items under the hammer and raked in a total of £2,081,341, more than £600,000 over the initial estimate.

The Formula One icon, 54, won a joint record seven world titles during his storied career in the sport, winning five consecutive championships with Ferrari between 2000 and 2004. 

The most expensive item of memorabilia – a signed helmet worn during his 2003 title-winning season – sold for £96,000. 

Schumacher wore the helmet at the 2003 German Grand Prix, where he qualified sixth on the grid and finished eighth.

Michael Schumacher memorabilia fetched a whopping £2million at auction on Tuesday

Schumacher, pictured in 2005, won a joint record seven world titles during his storied career

The most expensive item of memorabilia – a signed helmet worn during his 2003 title-winning season – sold for £96,000. Schumacher wore the helmet at the 2003 German Grand Prix

A red suit he sported while winning the 2003 Canadian Grand Prix also went for £62,000.

Meanwhile, an autographed rear wing end plate from one his Ferrari cars in 2003 was snapped up for £20,160, and an empty bottle of Moet champagne fetched £6,000, having been signed by fellow F1 legends Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. 

A spokesperson from RM Sotheby’s said: ‘From the moment Michael Schumacher first laced up his race boots and pulled on a helmet, the gifted racer was nothing short of a phenomenon.

‘A force of nature who would go on to dominate the highest echelons of competitive motorsport.

Schumacher now lives a very private life with his family in Switzerland having suffered a near fatal brain injury while skiing in 2013.

The German, who was skiing in the French Alps when he fell and hit his head on a rock, was put in a medically induced coma for 250 days in hospital before returning home.

Few have seen or visited Schumacher since he suffered his life-threatening injury, and even some friends and relatives have been kept in the dark by those closest to him in an effort to prevent leaks to the press.

Schumacher, pictured next to wife Corinna, left, in 2005, suffered a near fatal brain injury while skiing in 2013 and has since lived a very private life with his family in Switzerland

A signed rear wing end plate from one his Ferrari cars in 2003 was snapped up for £20,160

A bottle of Moet champagne, signed by F1 icons Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, fetched £6,000

Close friend Roger Benoit has described Schumacher as a ‘case without hope’, Mail Sport reported on Tuesday.

When asked to provide a specific health update on the German’s condition, he told Swiss newspaper Blick: ‘No. There is only one answer to this question and that is what his son Mick gave in one of his rare interviews in 2022 – ‘I would give anything to talk to Dad’. 

‘This sentence says everything about how his father has been doing for over 3,500 days. A case without hope.’

The memorabilia collection was sold in Monterey, California and took place between August 16 and September 6.

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