A 2014 Lamborghini Veneno Roadster has fetched $8.4 million at an auction in Switzerland on Sunday. This has made it the most expensive Lamborghini that has ever been auctioned as per the auction house.
This Lamborghini Veneno Roadster was a part of the collection of 26 supercars that have been auctioned off by Bonham and the state of Geneva. These cars were sieved from the vice president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of the oil-rich country’s dictator, Teodor Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Obiang Mangue faced charges for money laundering and embezzling of more than $100 million in 2017. The case was finally closed in February, but the Lamborghini had been seized by Swiss authorities in 2016. The 26 supercars were able to raise a total of $27 million at the auction. A big percentage of sales, amounting to $23.5 million, will be donated to a charity in Equatorial Guinea as per Bonhams.
The roadster version of the Veneno was priced at $3.6 million when it was unveiled in 2014. The Veneno was based on the Lamborghini Aventador and was created in celebration of the automaker’s 50th anniversary. All nine units of the Veneno Roadster were sold out immediately.
The automaker said about Veneno, ‘This Lamborghini concept car represents state-of-the-art design inspired by aeronautics, capable of giving you the indescribable feeling of flying on the road.’ The car was auctioned off for about $8.2 million, thus making it the most expensive Lamborghini to have ever been auctioned.
This particular one is the seventh unit of Lamborghini Veneno Roadster out of the total nine that were made. The car has been driven for a total of 202 miles and is in pristine condition other than the slight scratch that it has on the right rear wheel. It has the famous V12 engine and can manage a top speed of 221 mph while being capable of going from 0 to 60mph in 2.8 seconds.
Bonhams also said, ‘Lamborghini’s aim with the Veneno was to create a close approximation to a sports-racing prototype that would nevertheless be road legal, which entailed making a big departure from the styling of previous Lamborghini models.’
Bonhams declared the ownership of the car as a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’