The COVID-19 pandemic may have affected many areas of life, but not, it seems, the sale of rare and unique items. In fact, according to data from fine art analysts Pi-Ex, the top auction houses saw their sales boosted by 230% in the first half of 2021 alone. This has been helped along by the fact that some incredible items have been sold this year. Read on to discover the most spectacular sales of 2021. All dollar values in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

While it's traditional to hold onto a slice of wedding cake as a memento of your big day, not many are in good enough condition to make it to auction after 40 years. This 28-ounce slice of cake icing, which was sold intact with a marzipan base, features the royal coat of arms and came from one of 23 cakes that were baked for the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in July 1981.

Presented to Moyra Smith, a member of the Queen Mother's household, it had survived for decades in an old tin wrapped in plastic before going under the hammer. Estimates suggested the excellently preserved piece of cake would sell for between £300 and £500 ($400-$665). Boat charterer Gerry Layton eventually snapped it up for £1,850 ($2.45k) in August.

An auction on 4 May saw an array of Star Wars memorabilia go under the hammer in Bristol to raise money for the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK. The items up for sale had belonged to the late David Prowse, who played the villainous Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy and had collected memorabilia from the franchise thereafter. 

Notable pieces included a prototype lightsabre, as well as a vintage replica of Darth Vader's mask, similar to the example pictured. The mask sold for £2,200 ($2.9k) – more than five times the top estimate – while a script from The Empire Strikes Back was the auction’s biggest seller, raking in £23,000 ($30.5k). In total, the auction raised £400,000 ($531k) for the charity.

A virtual Gucci bag sold for more than the price of a real bag in May. The digital version of the fashion house's Dionysus bag (pictured) was sold on the Roblox gaming platform. The bag had originally featured in the Roblox virtual world as part of the Gucci Garden exhibition and sold for 475 Robux, the equivalent of $6 (£4.50). After the sale, users began trading the bag, with one eventually spending 350,000 Robux, or $4,115 (£3.1k), on it. That's nearly $800 (£600) more than the bag's real-world $3,400 (£2.56k) price tag.

This otherwise ordinary medal has an incredible yet harrowing tale behind it. The medal was awarded to Private John Parr of the 4th Battalion, who is thought to be the first British soldier to have died during World War I. Parr joined the 4th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment aged just 15 (claiming to be 18 to meet the minimum age requirement) in 1912. He arrived in France as part of one of the first British units on 14 August 1914, prior to his death a week later on 21 August.

The full circumstances of Parr's tragic and untimely death are unknown, though it is believed he was sent towards a village near Mons to locate German positions. He likely encountered German troops and was killed in a shoot-out. The medal, which auctioneers thought would sell for £1,800-£2,200 ($2.4-$3k), sold for an impressive £17,000 ($22.5k). The buyer was described as a collector with an interest in military history. 

A kelpie working dog – described as being the "complete package" and with a "cool personality" to boot – sold for a record price in Australia back in June. Eulooka Hoover, a kelpie hailing from a farm in Edenhope, Victoria, sold for AU$35,200 ($27.1k/£20.4k) at the annual Casterton Kelpie Association's working dog auction. Kelpies are bred to herd sheep and cattle, and Eulooka Hoover sold for AU$10,000 higher than the previous record of AU$22,200 ($17.1k/£12.9k).

Sprinter Michael Johnson was so confident in his ability to perform when he entered the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta that he turned up to his 200-metre and 400-metre events in gold shoes. The iconic athlete secured the medals to match in both events and set new Olympic and world records in the process. He was also the first man to win gold for both events at the same Olympic Games.

The never-before-seen golden Nike trainers earned Johnson the nickname “The Man with the Golden Shoes”. The signed sneakers went up for auction through Sotheby’s in the summer, and were expected to sell for between $30,000 and $50,000 (£22.5k-£37.5k). The unique kicks sold at the bottom end of their estimate, but still fetched an impressive $31,500 (£23.6k).

London's Westminster City Council decided to put a total of 275 white, red and black signs up for sale in March, including some of the capital’s most iconic road signs. Abbey Road is home to the famous Abbey Road Studios, which was famously frequented by The Beatles back in the day. As such, the Abbey Road sign was expected to sell for between £1,000 and £2,000 ($1.3k-$2.6k). Last-minute bidding battles between Beatles fans who simply wouldn't Let It Be saw the price soar, with the iconic piece of signage selling for £37,200 ($49.5k). 

In September, a rare and previously unreleased John Lennon recording sold for $58,300 (£43.8k) at a Danish auction house. The 33-minute audio recording features an interview with Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono, as well as a never-before heard song titled Radio Peace. The track was set to be the theme song for a radio station Lennon hoped to launch in Amsterdam.

Recorded just four months before The Beatles split in 1970, the recording was made by four schoolboys. The quartet of students convinced their teachers to let them attend a press conference held by John and Yoko, with hopes of interviewing the pair for their school magazine. It's thought to be the only copy in existence.  

A car given to Diana Spencer by Prince Charles two months before they married was sold at auction in June 2021 for £52,640 ($70k). Exceeding the original estimates of £30k-£40k ($40k-$53.5k), the vehicle sold with its original registration number, paintwork, and radio. 

The 1981 Ford Escort Mk 3 Ghia was gifted to Princess Diana in May 1981 and she drove it until August 1982. The car also features a silver frog mascot on the bonnet, a copy of a gift from Diana's sister, Sarah Spencer. Essex auction house Reeman Dansie, which oversaw the sale, states on its website that the amphibian addition was to remind Diana of "the fairy tale of a beautiful girl whose kiss turns a frog into a prince". There were around 83,000 miles on the car's speedometer at the time of the sale.

An abundance of keepsakes that belonged to Winston Churchill have gone under the hammer in 2021, including this cigar box. The rosewood box, engraved with the wartime leader's name, was sold containing two personalised cigars, a gold cigar holder, and a personalised penknife. Initially expected to sell for a modest £7,000, the box and its contents sold for a hefty £79,000 ($105k) in March.

While these cigars remain unused, a cigar end discarded by Churchill also fetched thousands at auction this year, selling for £4,270 ($5.7k) in May. Measuring in at 7cm, the cigar end was retrieved by a police officer after Churchill had dropped it on the pavement. Churchill’s footwear also came into the auctioneer's spotlight in March, when a pair of his embroidered velvet slippers sold for £39,040 ($52k).

In late August, Polish Olympian Maria Andrejczyk auctioned off her silver medal to raise funds for eight-month-old Miłoszek Małysa, who was in desperate need of heart surgery. Andrejczyk won her medal for the women's javelin throw at the Tokyo Olympics. The Polish infant needed $383,000 (£279k) for life-saving surgery in California, and with half the funds already raised, the philanthropic athlete set out to raise the rest. The medal was purchased by Polish supermarket chain Zabka for $125,000 (£93.8k). Zabka announced that it would return the medal to Andrejczyk.

The original Poohsticks bridge sold at auction for £131,625 ($175k) in October, surpassing its presale estimate of £40,000 to £60,000 ($53-$80k). The bridge, which is arguably one of the most iconic settings in literature, appears in A. A. Milne's beloved Winnie-the-Pooh stories.

The bridge was originally located in Ashdown Forest in the south of England, which was the inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood that featured in Milne's writing. It was built in 1907 but replaced by a replica in 1999 due to wear-and-tear caused by tourists. Its new keeper is estate owner Lord De La Warr, whose late father played the Poohsticks game with A. A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, when they were children. De La Warr, who owns the Buckhurst Park estate, where the forest is located, plans to return the bridge close to its original position in the woods. 

A self-portrait caricature that the late Kurt Cobain sketched in 1992 while on tour in Singapore with his band Nirvana sold for $281,250 (£211k) through Julien's Auctions on 12 June. The drawing is labelled “Kurdt Kobain [sic] Rock Star”, and features the words “I don’t know how to play and I don’t give a hoot!” Cobain originally gave the drawing to the freelance photographer Jacque Chong, who worked with the band on their Singapore tour. 

In November, auctioneer Morton & Eden announced that it had sold one of the first coins minted in Colonial New England. Dating from around 1652, the silver shilling is one of just a few-dozen known to exist. It smashed its original $300,000 (£225k) estimate at auction, eventually selling for $351,912 (£264k). The Boston-born coin was found in Northumberland, England, and was nestled in a candy tin alongside hundreds of other old coins. 

Hollywood actor Tom Hanks made a cool $358,400 (£269k) in August by selling off his old SUV and trailer. The 1980 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser SUV, in pristine condition, is customised with a GM V6 engine and leather Porsche seats. It sold for $123,200 (£92k) at auction, a significantly higher price than the model normally goes for, perhaps due to the celebrity status of its owner.

Hanks's 1992 Airstream trailer sold for $235,200 (£176.5k). The star would use the trailer – which is fully equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, desk, and sleeping area – as a home while on the road filming movies such as Sleepless in Seattle.

Pokémon cards have been a firm collector favourite since they were first released in 1996, but in recent years the sums achieved by certain cards have been astounding. On 14 January, this rare Blastoise card became the most expensive Pokémon card to ever go under the hammer, fetching $360,000 (£270k) in a Heritage auction. The mint-condition card is one of only two Blastoise presentation cards ever produced, and the location of its counterpart is unknown.

Printing errors can render paper money worthless, but in some cases it can actually make its value skyrocket. A Del Monte sticker from a bunch of bananas was already affixed to the paper when this $20 US bill was printed, creating an entirely unique note. It conforms with the design of the US Treasury’s 1996 series. The bill was expected to fetch $60,000 (£45k) at auction, which would have been a hefty increase on its original value. However, the slip-up actually boosted the value of the $20 note to a staggering $396,000 (£297k) when it finally sold on 25 January.

The Apple 1 was the first computer model built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. It was built using Hawaiian koa wood and sold for $650 in 1976, the equivalent of $3,159 (£2.37k) in today's money. Just 200 units were made, and 175 sold before the model was discontinued. Although it sold at auction for $400,000 (£300k), a considerable mark-up on its original price, the computer was actually expected to sell for as much as $600,000 (£450k). 

In June, a car driven by the late Paul Walker in The Fast and the Furious film was sold for $550,000 (£412.8k) at the Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas auction house. The bright orange Toyota Supra is outfitted with a Bomex front spoiler and side skirts, a TRD-style hood, and an APR aluminium biplane rear wing, as well as 19" Dazz Motorsport Racing Hart M5 Tuner wheels. Blue Alcantara and black leather embellish the interior. The iconic ride is now the most expensive Supra ever sold.

Sold during the Icons & Idols: Rock 'N' Roll event hosted by Julien's Auctions, this guitar was played by English musician Eric Clapton in his stage debut with the blues rock band Derek & The Dominos in 1970. The 1968 Martin D-45 acoustic guitar was sold with its original hardshell case, a signed letter of provenance, three photographs of Clapton playing the instrument, three albums, an expanded edition of Clapton: The Autobiography, and a 1970 edition of Melody Maker magazine. An anonymous buyer paid $625,000 (£469k) for the lot, despite estimates suggesting it would sell for somewhere between $300,000-$500,000 (£225k-£375k).

A rare English 50 shilling piece – thought to be one of only 12 in existence and dating back to 1656 – sold for a record-breaking £471,200 ($628k) in January. The coin depicts the portrait of Oliver Cromwell, who was the Lord Protector of England between 1653-1658 after the defeat of King Charles I. When the coin came up for auction, it was given an estimated selling price of up to £150,000 ($200k). However, the final bid made it the most expensive Cromwellian coin ever sold.

A rare manual for an Apple II computer, signed by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1980, sold for an incredible $787,484 (£591k) in August. Other Apple-related memorabilia also fetched a high price at the same auction. A letter signed by Jobs sold for almost $480,000 (£360k), while a copy of the first issue of Macworld – signed by Jobs and his Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak – sold for over $200,000 (£150k). According to the Paul Fraser Collectibles’ PFC40 Autograph Index, Steve Jobs currently has the most valuable autograph of a deceased person.

On 23 April, a prototype version of the US Mint’s first silver dollar sold for $840,000 (£630k), far exceeding its estimate. The copper coin was allegedly discovered at the site of the original Philadelphia Mint in the late 19th century, after it was minted in 1794. It's similar in design to the silver dollar coins that later went into circulation but it doesn’t feature the stars that appeared around the portrait of Liberty. The coin came from the collection of Bob Simpson, the businessman and Texas Rangers co-chairman.

A collection of artworks by the late great boxer Muhammad Ali sold at Bonhams in New York for a total of $945,500 (£709k) in October. The collection consisted of 26 drawings and paintings created by the athlete in the 1970s. Ali's Sting Like a Bee (pictured), a depiction of his boxing ring victory, set a record price, selling for $425,000 (£319k) to a British art collector. A 1979 canvas painting on canvas that read "I Love You America" sold for $150,000 (£112k), while a 1967 felt-tip pen sketch sold for $24,000 (£17.9k). The artwork was from the collection of Ali's close friend Rodney Hilton Brown.

Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein is perhaps best known for his E=mc² formula – and a letter containing the famous equation achieved an astonishing $1.2 million (£900k) when it went up for auction in late May. The letter was written on Einstein's personal Princeton letterhead, and was sent to Ludwik Silberstein, the Polish-American physicist. A furious bidding war ensued at RR Auction in Boston, and the document sold for three times more than expected. There are only four examples of the formula written in Einstein's handwriting, and this is the only one that’s privately owned.

In October, a signed photograph of baseball star "Shoeless Joe Jackson" sold for a record-breaking $1.47 million (£1.1m) at Hunt Auctions. According to Christies, the 8 inch x 10 inch (20cm x 25cm) photograph was taken in 1911 and is the only signed copy known to exist. It fetched the highest price ever for a signed sports photograph, far above its original estimate of $200,000 to $400,000 (£150k-£300k).

The legendary Michael Jordan is known as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, so it's little wonder that his signed trainers broke records when they sold at Sotheby's in October. Described by the auctioneer as "the earliest known Michael Jordan Regular Season Game Worn Nikes", Jordan donned the trainers during his fifth NBA game in his first season with the Chicago Bulls, back in 1984. They fetched a whopping $1.47 million (£1.1m) at auction, making them the most expensive game-worn footwear ever sold. 

Gaming aficionados have had quite the year when it comes to sensational sales, with three sealed video games taking the title of world’s priciest video game in quick succession. In April, a copy of Super Mario Bros. from 1986 sold for $660,000 (£495k). This was followed by a pristine copy of The Legend of Zelda was auctioned off on 9 July for a staggering $870,000 (£652k).

Just two days later, however, that was blown out of the water by the sale of this unopened copy of Super Mario 64, which sold for $1.5 million (£1.1m). The video game had been given a 9.8 A++ rating by gaming collectable firm Wata, which means that it is "like new" and in near-perfect condition. By way of comparison, another copy of Super Mario 64 – that had a slightly lower rating of 9.6 A++ – sold at the same auction for just $13,200 (£9.9k).

One of the most famous pieces in Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji landscape collection, Under the Well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa (often shortened to The Great Wave) was given a modest estimate of $150,000 (£112k) ahead of its auction in March. 

On the day, however, the woodblock print fetched more than 10 times that amount when it sold for $1.6 million (£1.2m), including the buyer’s premium. This made The Great Wave, which was created in around 1831, the most expensive Hokusai piece ever sold.

Nike Air Yeezy trainers are the brainchild of rapper Kanye West, and a pair not only designed but also worn by West himself sold for $1.8 million (£1.3m) through Sotheby’s. The shoes became the most expensive trainers ever when bidding soared past the $615,000 (£461k) achieved by a pair of Nike Air Jordan 1s in 2020.

West wore the shoes during his 2008 performance at the Grammys. Fans who couldn’t afford the gargantuan price tag will soon be able to get in on the action though, as the shoes were snapped up by online platform RARES, which sells shares in rare footwear to keen investors.

The finest wines attract affluent investors, and on 18 April one bidder paid an incredible €1.8 million ($2.2m/£1.6m) for 12 bottles that dated back to 1865. The grands crus bottles came from Burgundy, France, which is famed for its exquisite vineyards. Specialist auction house Baghera Wines sold a total of 1,926 bottles that day, racking up a total of €8.7 million ($10.5m/£7.8m). The most expensive single bottle sold for around €182,000 ($219k/£164k).

In March, a Tom Brady rookie card became the most expensive American NFL card in history when it fetched $1.32 million (£991k) at auction. Less than a month later, the card broke its own record when another example of Brady's extremely rare autographed 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Ticket sold for $2.25 million (£1.7m).

The difference of almost $1 million between the two cards was due to the second card having a quality grading of 8.5 out of 10, which is 0.5 more than the card sold the previous month.

Dating from the 18th century, this "exceptionally rare and important" imperial Beijing enamel teapot sold for a whopping £1.7 million ($2.26m) at the start of November. With fees added, the final sale price was £2.06 million ($2.7m). The six-inch wide teapot was originally created for Emperor Qianlong in around 1740. It was initially valued at £800,000 ($1.06m) but a bidding war sent its price rocketing at the auction in London. According to a spokesperson at auction house Bonhams, the exquisitely decorated teapot is one of just three known examples in the world. 

Despite being damaged, a Qing imperial porcelain vase fetched an astounding $2.4 million (£1.8m) at the New York auction house Doyle in September. The vase, which dates from 1735-1796 and depicts two European women with a child, is completely 'neckless' and is now capped with a silver mount. Even so, the bidding war was intense as the piece is a highly sought-after collector's item. In 2011, a perfect example of a similar Qing vase sold for a whopping $27.2 million (£20m) at Sotheby's Hong Kong.

Babe Ruth is often referred to as the world’s first sports superstar, so it’s no surprise that his trading cards are considered the holy grail of sports card investing. In November, a 1916 Babe Ruth rookie card sold for $2.46 million (£1.8m) in the Mile High Card Company's fall auction. Described as being in near-mint condition, the card is one of just six copies that have been graded by PSA, none of which has fetched as much as this copy. 

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sold his first ever tweet as a non-fungible token (a digital certificate that can't be replicated, also known as an NFT) on the site Valuables for $2.9 million (£2.2m) in March. Dorsey's tweet, which he penned in March 2006, simply read: "just setting up my twttr". A bidding war erupted between computer tycoon Justin Sun and Bridge Oracle CEO Sina Estavi, with the latter ultimately winning. Estavi likened the purchase to owning the Mona Lisa. Dorsey stated that all proceeds from the sale would go to charity.

A first edition of Action Comics from 1938, featuring the first appearance of Superman, sold for $3.25 million (£2.44m) in April. The comic, which originally sold for just 10c, was auctioned in a private sale via ComicConnect.com, setting a new world record for comic book sales. In the process, it also beat another copy of the exact same comic which sold for $3.2 million (£2.4m) back in 2014. It's estimated that there are only around 100 copies of this edition still left.

A 17th-century copy of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous work, this version of the Mona Lisa was bought by an antique dealer called Raymond Hekking for just £3 in 1953. Hekking was convinced that he had purchased Da Vinci's original painting, which was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 and remained missing for two years prior to being recovered in Florence. He was adamant that a copy of the painting had been returned to the Parisian museum, and spent a fortune trying to prove that he owned the original. However, his theory was not taken seriously.

This compelling story meant the painting sold for over 10 times its estimate at Christie's in June, going under the hammer for €2.9 million ($3.3m/£2.5m). It's a world record for a Mona Lisa copy.

In November, a painting called The Auction by British artist L S Lowry sold for a staggering $3.4 million (£2.5m) at Sotheby's. The artwork was painted in 1958 and had never been sold at auction before. It was given an estimated value of between $1.6 million and $2.4 million (£1.2m-£1.8m) but smashed expectations, eventually selling for almost twice as much. 

Even after his tragic death in January 2020, basketball legend Kobe Bryant continues to break records. One of the jerseys Bryant played in during his rookie season with the Los Angeles Lakers sold for $3.69 million (£2.7m) through Goldin Auctions in late May. The astonishing sum makes it the most expensive basketball jersey ever sold, as well as the most valuable Bryant item to go under the hammer. The buyer of the signed shirt was pharmaceuticals billionaire Bob Duggan.

The Adventures of Tintin was one of the most popular European comic series of the 20th century, and work by its creator Hergé can fetch huge sums at auction. This rare gouache, ink, and watercolour painting was intended as a front cover for 1936's The Blue Lotus, but a simplified version was eventually used for publication.

The artwork fetched a tremendous €3.2 million ($3.9m/£2.8m) via the Parisian auction house Artcurial in January. The sale shattered the previous record for comic book art, which was set in 2014 for a double-page drawing, also by Hergé, that sold for €2.65 million ($3.7m/£2.2m).

The non-fungible token (NFT) of the iconic 'Doge' meme (pictured) sold at auction for $4 million (£3m) in June, making it the most expensive meme NFT sale to date. In September, PleasrDAO, the group that bought the NFT, put it up for fractional ownership, giving people the opportunity to own a piece of the NFT from just $1. The photo of Kabosu the Shiba Inu was taken by the dog's owner Atsuko Sato on 13 February 2010. Sato uploaded to to her blog, and the quizzical-looking dog soon went viral.

A rare parchment engraving of the Declaration of Independence sold for $4.4 million (£3.3m) at Freeman's auction house in Philadelphia. The incredible artefact – which John Quincy Adams, the sixth US president, commissioned from printer William J. Stone in 1820 – was unearthed in the attic of an ancestral Scottish home. Stone's engraving on parchment is considered to be the most faithful rendition of the original 1776 document.

A block of inverted 1918 24¢ Jenny Plate stamps with an upside-down aeroplane misprint sold for $4.9 million (£3.7m) in June, setting a new record for the sale of an American stamp. Bought by the American collector David Rubenstein, the stamp block is set to go on public display "to help inspire and educate others about our country’s rich history".

When he created the world wide web in 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee (pictured) famously refused to patent his invention. Instead of monetising it, he gifted it to the world. But in June, he sold the the original source code as an NFT for $5.4 million (£4m).

The NFT is made up of four parts, including a letter written by Berners-Lee. Before the auction closed on 30 June, Berners-Lee and his wife, Rosemary Leith, said that they would donate the proceeds of the sale to good causes. Despite the good intentions behind the sale, NFTs have been criticised; as they are stored online, it has been estimated that the carbon footprint of a single NFT is the same as an EU citizen's over a month.

A gun used to kill the infamous western outlaw Billy the Kid went under the hammer at auction house Bonhams in August. The Colt Single Action Revolver fetched a staggering $6 million (£4.5m), a record price for a gun. It was fired twice by Sherrif Pat Garrett in 1881, with the first shot hitting Billy the Kid in the chest and the second missing. The remarkable piece of Old West history was said to be in very good condition.

The world's largest triceratops skeleton, known as 'Big John', was discovered in South Dakota in 2014. More than 60% intact, and thought to be around 66 million years old, it's utterly unique. Standing at 8 metres (26 feet) long and 3 metres (nearly 10 feet) tall, Big John was bought by an anonymous American buyer for $7.7 million (£5.8m) at a Paris auction house in October. 

The finest of seven known examples of 1787 New York-style Brasher doubloons, this gold coin attracted attention in January when it sold for an astonishing $9.36 million (£7m) at Heritage Auctions in Texas. Acquired in 1848 by its first documented owner, this particular example caused a storm as it has only been publicly sold twice, with both sales reaching record prices. The most recent of these record-setting sales was in 1979, when it went under the hammer for $725,000 (£544k). It continued to hold the record of the world's most valuable coin for a decade. 

Winston Churchill was an avid painter but understandably didn’t have an awful lot of time for his artistic hobby between 1939 and 1945. Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque is the only piece known to have been painted by the British Prime Minister during World War II, and he gifted it to his American contemporary, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1943.

Actor Brad Pitt bought the painting in 2011 for his then-wife Angelina Jolie. In February, Jolie opted to auction the painting, which came with an estimate of up to £2.5 million ($3.3m). The oil canvas went on to defy all expectations, selling for £8.3 million ($11m) on 1 March.

A sketch of a bear’s head set the record for the most expensive Leonardo da Vinci drawing ever sold on 8 July, when it fetched a sensational £8.8 million ($11.7m) at a Christie’s auction in London. Head of a Bear is just 7x7cm in size, and was created using silverpoint on pink-beige paper. The sketch is more than 500 years old and was purchased in 1860 by the British painter and collector Sir Thomas Lawrence, who snapped it up through the very same auction house for just £2.50 – the equivalent of £310 ($410) today. Since then, it has featured in several exhibitions prior to going under the hammer.

The lucky winning bidders have only been identified as a man and a woman, and their new da Vinci original remains one of the few pieces by the Renaissance master to be privately owned.

Another Einstein document that sold for big bucks in 2021 is this rare manuscript. Featuring early calculations that would later became Einstein's general theory of relativity, the manuscript fetched $13 million (£9.8m) when it sold at Christie's in Paris in November. This was significantly higher than its original estimated value, which sat between $2.25 million (£1.7m) and $3.38 million (£2.5m). The document, which dates from before 1915, is 54 pages long and was co-written by Einstein's colleague, the engineer Michele Besso.

Russia’s largest diamond went up for auction at Christie's in Geneva in mid-May, and sold for a remarkable 12.84 million Swiss francs ($14m/£11.8m). The incredible 100.94-carat colourless gem, named the Alrosa Spectacle, was cut from a rough diamond that was discovered at an alluvial mine in Russia's Far East in 2016. It took a year and eight months for craftspeople to prepare, cut, and polish the stone, ready for sale.

Pieces by Vincent van Gogh always prompt a flurry of excitement in the art world when they come up for auction, particularly if they are among his lesser-known works. Created in 1887, experts were aware of A Street Scene in Montmartre but had only ever seen a black-and-white photograph of it. Why? It was privately owned by a French family, who chose to keep it behind closed doors for more than a century.

Incredibly, this painting was auctioned twice in the same day in March, as the initial winning sum fell through due to issues with online bidding. The second time around, the painting achieved a slightly smaller – yet still impressive – final bid of €13.09 million ($15.7m/£11.8m).

An extremely rare 1933 Double Eagle coin sold for a record price of $18.9 million (£14.2m) at a Sotheby's auction in June. The coin is now the most expensive ever sold, more than doubling the previous record. Remarkably, the coin's face value is just $20. However, it's valuable because the 1933 edition never actually entered circulation, with most returned and melted down by the US government. Despite that, around 13 coins did make it into circulation, and in 1944 the Secret Service declared that if any collectors possessed one of the coins, it would be considered stolen.

This coin is the only one of its type to ever be privately owned. The coin was then sold in 2002 for $7.6 million (£5.4m), setting a record at the time, to the shoe designer Stuart Weitzman.

The identity of the mysterious street artist Banksy remains unclear. What is known, however, is that their artwork has raised huge amounts of money at auction. This painting, called Game Changer, appeared in the foyer of Southampton General Hospital in England during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It sold for an unprecedented £14.4 million ($19.1m) at auction this March. The proceeds, plus a portion of the auction house premium, which added up to more than £16 million ($22.3m) in total, went to various healthcare charities across the UK.

A McLaren F1 car sold to an undisclosed buyer for $20.5 million (£15.4m), making it the most expensive car to sell at auction in 2021 – as well as the most expensive McLaren car sold in history. The classic model is a collector's item and is considered one of the first-ever modern supercars. With a 6-litre V-12 engine, the vehicle can reach a top speed of 240mph. The car, which retailed between $800,000 and $1 million (£583k-£729k) in the 1990s, had been estimated to fetch $15 million (£11.3m) before racing past that target. 

On 20 July, Jeff Bezos flew to space on his spaceflight company Blue Origin's first human flight. Joining the Amazon founder for the ride on the New Shepard rocket were his brother Mark, 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and 18-year-old student Oliver Daemen. The journey took place 52 years after Apollo 11's moon landing.

Blue Origin auctioned off one ticket for the maiden flight. Bidding started at $4.8 million (£3.6m) and reached a whopping $28 million (£21m) within 10 minutes. An anonymous buyer secured the seat but was then unable to make the trip due to “scheduling conflicts”. Dutch financier Joes Daemen was first in line for Blue Origin’s second space flight, and so was bumped up to the maiden voyage when the winning bidder pulled out. He opted to send his teenage son in his place. The 11-minute automated flight launched from Van Horn, Texas.

In May, Rolls-Royce unveiled its Boat Tail car, which it's calling "the most ambitious motor car ever created". The four-seater car is shaped like a yacht deck at the back and measures almost 19 feet (5.8m) in length. The car, which is rumoured to have a price tag of around £20 million ($28.2m), is part of Rolls-Royce's new Coachbuild programme where high-profile clients are invited to design their own unique cars. There are three Boat Tails being made, each personalised to its owner, and billionaire rapper Jay-Z and his wife Beyoncé are thought to be one of the buyers.

Frida Kahlo's 1949 painting Diego Y Yo ('Diego and I') sold for the record-breaking sum of $34.9 million (£26.3m) in November. Now the most expensive piece of Latin American artwork to ever sell at auction, Diego Y Yo was Kahlo's final self-portrait before her death in 1954. It features a small picture of her husband Diego Rivera on her forehead and tears rolling down Kahlo's face. The painting previously sold for $1.4 million in 1990, the equivalent of just $2.9 million (£2.2m) today. 

In November, a first edition of the US Constitution sold at Sotheby's for $43 million (£32.4m). The buyer, revealed to be hedge fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin, narrowly outbid a consortium of cryptocurrency investors known as ConstitutionDAO, with DAO standing for 'decentralised autonomous organisation'. The document is one of just 13 originals dating from 1787, and was expected to sell for a top price of $15 million (£11.3m). The sale proceeds were donated to the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation, which promotes the understanding of democracy, and Griffin has said that he'll lend the constitution to a free-access art museum in Arkansas. 

Journey of Humanity, by the contemporary British artist Sacha Jafri, is made up of 70 framed sections and spans an enormous 17,176 square feet (1,596 square metres) – the equivalent of six tennis courts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's the largest canvas painting in the world. The painting was set to be sold in segments, but a French man residing in the UAE bought the entire masterpiece for $62 million (£47m), with the proceeds set to be donated to children’s charities. Jafri didn’t produce the entire piece himself, with children from 140 different countries submitting artwork to be featured in the piece.

The Renaissance masterpiece Young Man Holding A Roundel was painted by Sandro Botticelli around 550 years ago. In incredibly good condition, the artwork sold for a record $92.2 million (£69.4m) at a Sotheby’s auction in New York at the end of January. The winning bid is believed to have been placed by a Russian buyer.

Estimated to have been painted between 1470 and 1480, the portrait is the most expensive Botticelli ever sold, as well as the second most valuable Old Master painting to ever be auctioned. The most expensive remains Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which sold for $450.3 million (£339m) in 2017. 

Picasso’s artwork is among the most coveted in the world, and so experts estimated that Woman Sitting Near a Window would sell for around $55 million (£41.4m) at its Christie’s auction on 14 May. Incredibly, the 1932 painting surpassed its valuation by a mile and sold for $103.4 million (£78m) after 19 minutes of bidding. The astonishing final bid makes this the fifth of the artist’s works to sell for a nine-figure sum.

While Picasso's Woman Sitting Near a Window is 2021's most expensive individual artwork so far, a collection of his art sold for a grand total of almost $110 million (£80m). The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas has been home to an array of his artworks for more than 20 years, and put 11 of his masterpieces up for auction on 23 October to diversify its fine art collection.

Comprising nine paintings and two ceramic pieces, the 1938 painting Woman in a Red-Orange Beret sold for $40.5 million (£29m), while the 1959 work Homme et Enfant (pictured) sold for $24.4 million (£17.7m). 

Now read about the most expensive items ever sold