Maradona’s shirt, Holyfield’s belt and Peaty’s trunks: How the world went crazy for sports memorabilia
Forget fine wine, keep your classic cars and jack in the jewellery; sports memorabilia is the alternative investment class causing a stir worldwide as fans and investors alike pile into the trend.
The phenomenon hit the headlines earlier this year when the baseball shirt worn by Babe Ruth when he supposedly called a shot before hitting a home run in the 1932 World Series was sold for $24m (£19m) by Heritage Auctions in Texas.
At a stroke it almost doubled the previous world record price paid at auction for an item of sports memorabilia, illustrating the interest not just from collectors but also those seeking a return.
Two years earlier the Argentina shirt worn by Diego Maradona for his notorious “Hand of God” goal against England at the 1984 World Cup was sold by Sotheby’s in London for £7.1m, smashing pre-sale estimates of a £4m price tag.
Just months before, the auction house’s New York branch sold a Michael Jordan shirt from one of his last games for the Chicago Bulls for $10.1m (£8.8m at historic exchange rates), more than double even loftier expectations.
The surge in value of rare sports memorabilia and collectibles has been a boon for major auction houses on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as something of a departure from the Monets and Ming vases for which they are better known.
Now a French auction house, Aguttes, is entering the market for the first time in its 50-year history by holding what it claims to be Europe’s largest ever sport memorabilia sale.
“This is a field that is constantly growing, and its market is global,” said Francois Thierry, sports expert at Aguttes.
“Every major sport is represented, with unique pieces worn by players whose reach extends beyond the sports world. These are iconic pieces of sports history, transporting fans back to the matches where they were used. This is the first auction of this scale in Europe for sports memorabilia.”
Items in the Aguttes sale, which takes place on 15 December, include shirts worn by Pele, Bobby Moore and NBA star Jordan, Roger Federer’s tennis racket from the 2005 Wimbledon final, and the WBA world heavyweight champion’s belt won by Evander Holyfield in a 1996 fight with Mike Tyson.
Most of the lots are part of a trove amassed by a secretive Swiss collector. The whole catalogue is tipped to fetch around £400,000.
Sports memorabilia’s explosion in popularity follows similar growth in celebrity artefacts, such as a dress worn by Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz which tripled in value in just two years after being bought in 2012.
A 1965 Aston Martin DB5 used in James Bond films went for £5.1m, 60 per cent above the forecast price, in 2019.
“The cult of celebrity is so powerful it seems that collectors will pay more for memorabilia touched and used by famous people because they believe it has something of the essence of the celebrity,” said Pontus Silfverstolpe, co-founder of auction search engine Barneby’s.
Sports memorabilia is not only the preserve of the super rich, however, with a growing number of platforms offering authentic sweaty collectibles from more recent events.
Match Worn Shirt, whose 300 partner teams include Chelsea and Tottenham, has seen sales grow 40-fold in four years, while Team GB has partnered with Memento Exclusives to sell off ephemera from the Paris 2024 Olympics, such as Adam Peaty’s signed swimming trunks (£129).
If that sounds a little odd or just plain unsanitary, bear in mind that items previously snapped up by collectors include John Lennon’s tooth, a pregnancy test used by Britney Spears, and William Shatner’s kidney stone.