RM Sotheby’s Returns to Abu Dhabi This December — Fresh Off an $85 Million Middle East Record

RM Sotheby’s has announced the first consignments for its second annual Abu Dhabi Collectors Week auction, set for December 9. The early lineup is led by a 2009 Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M with roughly 5,200 kilometres on the clock, one of only 499 ever built to mark Ferrari’s sixteen Formula 1 constructors’ titles, carrying a pre-sale estimate of $700,000 to $850,000. Khaleej Times reported the announcement this week, with the broader group of early lots spanning roughly Dh293,600 to Dh3.11 million.

It is a modest opening number compared with what followed last time. RM Sotheby’s inaugural Abu Dhabi sale, held during the Formula 1 season finale in December 2025, grossed $85 million — by the house’s own account, the most successful collector car auction ever held in the Middle East. The sale moved everything from a one-off Pagani Zonda to a run of Ferraris and Lamborghinis, and set multiple regional price records along the way. A second edition, already locked in twelve months later, is as strong a signal as any that the house considers the UAE a durable fixture on its calendar rather than a one-off experiment timed to the Grand Prix.

Why a Global Auction House Keeps Coming Back

International houses do not plant a flag in a new market lightly. RM Sotheby’s own MENA managing director has described the Middle East as ‘an incredibly exciting market for collector cars,’ and the numbers back the rhetoric — a growing base of UAE-based collectors, re-export demand from buyers across the wider GCC, and a calendar that already revolves around Abu Dhabi’s December Grand Prix week and Dubai’s own concours and supercar culture. None of that is new to anyone who has spent time around Sheikh Zayed Road on a Friday night, but a marquee auction house committing to a second consecutive year gives it a public, repeatable price signal that private sales in the region rarely produce.

That matters because the collector and near-new exotic markets move in parallel more than people assume. A Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M crossing the block at a confirmed, published number does not just set a value for that specific car. It anchors expectations for every low-mileage, limited-run Ferrari changing hands privately in Dubai in the months around it, the same way a strong auction result for an older 911 or Aventador ripples through private listings for newer variants.

What It Means for Buyers and Sellers in Dubai

For House of Cars Dubai, this is the kind of news we watch closely rather than just report on. We deal in exactly the segment these auctions trade in — low-mileage, well-specced, limited-production cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Bentley and the other marques this blog covers — and public auction results give sellers a far better basis for pricing than guesswork, while giving buyers a reason to trust that a GCC-spec car with full history is not overpriced just because it is rare. A rising auction floor in Abu Dhabi, backed by an $85 million first year, is good news for anyone holding the right car in Dubai right now, whether they plan to sell through a dealer, privately, or eventually at auction themselves.

If you are weighing whether now is the right time to sell a car that fits this profile, or you are hunting for something specific that has not yet surfaced on the open market, that is precisely the conversation we have with clients every week, auction headlines or not. Send us a message on WhatsApp and we will tell you honestly where your car sits against what the market is actually paying.