UNITED KINGDOM: OLYMPICS - New record set as Olympic cup sold at auction in London

Record ID: 330675

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: OLYMPICS - New record set as Olympic cup sold at auction in London
  • Date: 18th April 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, UK (MARCH 8, 2012) (REUTERS) CLOSE UP OF BREAL'S SILVER CUP PRESENTED TO GREEK RUNNER SPYROS LOUIS AFTER WINNING 1896 OLYMPIC MARATHON CLOSE UP OF BREAL'S SILVER CUP PRESENTED TO GREEK RUNNER SPYROS LOUIS AFTER WINNING 1896 OLYMPIC MARATHON LONDON, UK (APRIL 18, 2012) (REUTERS ACCESS ALL) KATHARINE BRUNT, WHOSE GRANDFATHER MICHEL BREAL CAME UP WITH THE IDEA OF A MARATHON AT THE OLYMPICS, LOOKING AT IT WIDE OF AUCTION CUP IN STAND AUCTION IN PROGRESS. WINNING BID (HAMMER PRICE £450,000 COMES IN ON THE TELEPHONE. AUCTIONEER ASKS FOR BIDS ABOVE £450,000, THEN BRINGS DOWN HAMMER TO SELL THE CUP.)
  • Embargoed: 3rd May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA60QUPABDHDOWG03B2TR0NO8W8
  • Story Text: There are still 100 days to go until London 2012, but one Olympic record has already been broken - the price for a piece of memorabilia sold at auction.
    At Christie's in London on Wednesday (April 18), Breal's Silver Cup, presented to the winner of the first-ever Olympic marathon fetched 541,250 pounds sterling, more than doubling the previous mark.
    It was bought by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and will be displayed in Greece when its cultural centre opens in 2015.
    The cup, which had an estimate of between 120,000 and 160,000 sterling, was put up for auction by the family of Spyros Louis, who won the marathon for the home nation at the 1896 Olympics in Athens and was presented with the trophy.
    It was Louis' grandson, also called Spyros Louis, who made the decision to sell, and he watched proceedings online from his home in Greece.
    Louis senior was the only Greek victor at the inaugural modern games - he was a late entrant to the race and was due to have been a water carrier - and his victory ceremony proved so popular with the local population that it has been credited with kick-starting the global interest the games now generate.
    The previous world record price for Olympic memorabilia sold at auction was achieved in April 2011, when an Olympic torch from the 1952 Helsinki games went under the hammer in Paris for 290,000 Euros.
    On Wednesday, the 15-cm Breal's Silver Cup drew plenty of interest at Christie's, with serious bidders mingling with media, tourists and members of the public in the auction room.
    Bids received in the weeks before the auction began soon pushed the price well beyond the top estimate of 160,000 sterling, and the hammer eventually came down at 450,000 sterling, with the winning bid received by phone.
    The final figure of 541,250 sterling included Christie's commission.
    Wednesday's auction had a number of other pieces of memorabilia up for sale, including eight original Olympic torches spanning Games from Berlin in 1936 up to Atlanta in 1996, as well as original promotional posters, including those for the 1896 Olympics.
    The men's marathon race at the Athens games was invented by French philologist Michel Breal.
    Inspired by the legend of the messenger Pheidippides, Bréal had the idea to stage a race from the city of Marathon to Athens - a distance of twenty-five miles (40 kilometres), and promised a silver cup to the winner.
    Of the seventeen athletes who began the race, only ten completed the course, one of whom was later disqualified for having travelled by carriage for part of the race.
    Spyros Louis finished in just under three hours - eight minutes ahead of second place - and was presented with Bréal's Silver Cup, along with a silver medal, an antique vase, an olive branch and a diploma by King George.
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