Here’s Mary-Jo Otsea selling the Clark- Corcoran carpet in June 2013 at Sothebys in New York for $33.7 million.
This carpet is named after Senator William Clark, “the richest man west of the Mississippi” in the 1890s. Apparently no-one attempted to compete with his buying power in his lifetime – though, of course, the American sanctions on Iranian carpets might have complicated things if he’d wanted to buy it in 2013.
These sorts of prices (another carpet went for $4.6M) mean that none of us are likely to see the carpets except in a picture. Even the auctioneer was overwhelmed: confusing $16 million with $16,000 part way through the sale (click here to see a video of the bidding war – listen out at 1.40 for her confusion)
Image / video credit: Nazmiyal