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Key Takeaways
- Sotheby’s is set to auction off millions of dollars of sports memorabilia as part of a new annual “Sports Week” offering.
- The “Sports Week” items will include jerseys worn by Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, as well as Muhammed Ali’s boxing trunks.
- The new offering comes just months after Sotheby’s established a partnership with the NBA.
Sotheby’s is set to auction off millions of dollars of sports memorabilia as part of a new annual “Sports Week” offering spanning six live and online auctions from March 27 to April 12 as the athletic collectibles market heats up.
The auction house is set to sell collectibles including apparel worn by Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and Michael Jordan. Highlights also include Novak Djokovic’s tennis racket from the 2015 U.S. Open, an autographed pair of Air Jordans worn by Jordan himself during the 1996 NBA Finals, a football from Tom Brady’s final career game in the NFL, and the jersey Victor Wembanyama wore in this year’s NBA All-Star Game.
Kobe Bryant’s jersey from the 2009 NBA Finals is expected to net anywhere from $1.5 million to $2.5 million. A pair of boxing trunks worn by Muhammed Ali when he fought rival Joe Frazier in the Phillippines in 1975 could fetch $4 million to $6 million.
This isn’t Sotheby’s first foray into the world of athletic collectibles. Last year, the auction house put up a set of jerseys worn by Lionel Messi during the 2022 World Cup, as well as a set of individual sneakers worn by Michael Jordan during each of his NBA championship games. Messi’s jerseys reportedly sold for $7.8 million, while the “Dynasty Collection” of Air Jordans sold for $8 million.
The auction house has also worked extensively with the NBA, which is partnering with Sotheby’s on its All-Star Game collection. They auctioned 64 game-worn jerseys last year, and are set to auction off similar collectibles from the 2024 NBA Finals this summer as part of a multiyear partnership announced last November.
Sotheby’s inaugural “Sports Week” comes as the market for sports memorabilia reportedly experiences unprecedented growth, with Sotheby’s noting “2023 reiterated the strength of game-worn collectibles,” after groundbreaking sales in its sneakers and sports memorabilia categories in 2022.