Most expensive furniture ever sold

Old furniture has always been considered an investment, and its value increases over time, especially if it is well maintained. But there is one piece of furniture that has exceeded all expectations. It is still considered the best-selling piece of furniture even though it was sold in 2004. It's a Florentine cabinet built in 1732 and sold at Christie's auction house for $36 million.

The cabinet, named the Badminton Cabinet because it has "lived" for almost 200 years in Badminton, England, is 4m high and rests on 8 legs that support its impressive weight. It is made of ebony and decorated with a host of precious and semi-precious stones: agate, amethyst, lapis lazuli, chalcedony, quartz, etc. It has 10 drawers, trimmed with purple-blue frames and decorated with gilded birds and flowers also inlaid with stones.

The precious piece of furniture was commissioned and designed in 1726 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of Beaufort and completed in 1732, when Henry Somerset was 19 years old. In 1990 it was bought for $17 million by Barbara Piasecka Johnson, a billionaire member of the Johnson & Johnson family. After 14 years the cabinet was again entrusted to Christie's for sale. The auction went for $36 million and the winner was Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein. He donated the piece to the museum in Liechtenstein, of which he is director and where the prince's other collectibles are housed.

To show that the antique furniture is indeed valuable and was not just a fluke, I can tell you that Christie's also sold the armchair below for $29 million in 2009. So far it holds the title of the most expensive armchair ever sold. It was designed and made by the renowned Irish designer Eileen Grey between 1917 and 1919 and bears the name Dragon.

The most expensive piece of furniture sold in England was the Harrington chest of drawers made by the renowned furniture manufacturer Thomas Chippendale in 1770. It was sold in 2010 by Sotherby's for $5.8 million.

And as a bonus a Guarnieri violin made somewhere between 1698 and 1744, which was sold by Sotherby's in 2007 for $3.9 million. The violin is one of only 250 Guarnieri violins left in the world today. It belonged to a violinist at the court of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and was won at auction by a Russian lawyer. Seventy years later the sound of the famous violin was heard again in Moscow, played by the renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman.

So don't throw away all the junk in the house. You risk losing a fortune. 🙂