This Jeff Koons-Designed BMW Art Car Just Sold For Over $200,000
The colorful custom M850i xDrive Gran Coupe packs a 523-horsepower twin-turbo V8.
Spend millions for the most personalized service from the finest luxury automaker, and you still won’t get a paint finish that touches the one wrapping this BMW M850i xDrive Gran Coupe.
That’s because American artist Jeff Koons, whose $91 million metallic rabbit sculpture holds the auction record for the most expensive artwork sold by a living artist, designed the graphic. BMW and Koons teamed up to produce 99 examples of the Bavarian automaker’s flagship four-door sedan in 2022, the bodies of which were covered in 11 different colors over a 285-hour application process.
The design itself, which features comic book-style “POP” balloons and cartoon vapor thrusts, clearly harks to famed American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein while also paying tribute to Koons’ own 2010 M3 GT2 Art Car that raced at Le Mans.
“Roy was a great friend. I am not just paying homage to Roy; I am paying homage to popular culture,” Koons told Forbes of the inspiration behind his BMW collab in 2022.
“And the source material that Roy looked at were comic books. I just put some images—a pop or an explosion—that come from comic books. I grew up in a generation absorbing not only Surrealism and Dadaism, but Pop Art, so I’m referencing, in a minimal way, popular culture, which is the idea that you can have cerebral ideas through the excitement and stimulation of the body. That’s what the car tries to touch on.”
Not to mention, the car is exceptionally equipped. A factory-rated 523 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque are developed in a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 and channeled to all four wheel via an eight-speed automatic transmission from BMW’s racy M division. Also aboard are BMW’s adaptive M suspension, a suite of driver’s aides including blind spot detection and 3D imaging, and a lush interior playfully clad in blue and red leather.
Additional amenities include head-up display, a Bowers & Wilkins audio system, wireless phone charging, four-zone automatic climate control, a panoramic sunroof, and a cupholder lid with edition badging and Jeff Koons’ signature in Bavarian Blue.
While the retail price was originally listed at $350,995, the current Bring a Trailer bid held steady at $100,000 for several days before the final bid jumped to $215,000.
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