Record breaking auction

Startled faces and dropped jaws greeted the bidding war at the Dubai Cares sports memorabilia auction, which saw attendees in kanduras, ball gowns and suits racing to top each other's bids to raise a massive Dh25.8 million this week.

Personalities

Sporting personalities, such as UAE gold medalist Shaikh Ahmad Bin Hasher Al Maktoum and cricket celebrity Sachin Tandulkar, made an appearance at the event, held at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel on Monday, to personally hand over their own sports memorabilia to the winning bidders .

The most exciting bidding was for a shirt worn by His Highness Shaikh Rashid Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum, which fetched a mammoth Dh16 million. The auctioneer started the auction for the shirt at an amount that met no response, but ended up selling it for many times that after the starting price was brought down.

A bidding war for the shirt raged between several businessmen for a while, but boiled down to a quick competition between two bidders after the price reached Dh10 million.

Impressed

"Come on! We've come so far. How will another half a million hurt?" asked the auctioneer to one bidder as he paused to
consider his next move.

One of the 24 items of sport memorabilia to go under the hammer impressed some sports enthusiasts enough to break a Guinness world record.

A signed Manchester United Opus was bought by Salah Tahlak, Tareq and Zeyad Baqer and Salah Abdullah Saleh for Dh5 million, breaking the record of the highest price paid for a sports publication, which stood at approximately Dh4 million before Monday.