HONG KONG: An Asian buyer purchased a rare Leica camera, one of only four of its kind in the world, for $620,000 at a Hong Kong auction, auctioneers said yesterday.
The 1932 Leica Luxus II fetched HK$4.84m ($620,000) late on Friday in an auction where about 80 cameras and accessories went under the hammer in the southern Chinese city.
But the selling price failed to set a new world record for a camera, as some expected, falling short of earlier sale estimates of up to HK$9m ($1.16m).
The world record for a camera was set in Vienna last year, when a Leica camera prototype — the 0-Series made in 1923 — sold for €2.16m ($2.79m).
Only four of the Luxus II cameras were ever made, auctioneers Bonhams said. The whereabouts of the other three are unknown.
The camera, which is gold-plated and comes with a crocodile skin case, had previously belonged to a British amateur photographer who acquired it soon after the World War II, Bonhams said.
A spokesman for Bonhams said the buyer was Asian, but did not reveal the nationality.
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