Bonhams has confirmed that a bidder paid €260,500 for the remains of a Bugatti that was pulled from the depths of Switzerland’s Lake Maggiore after 73 years.

The price for the 1925 Bugatti Type 22 was even more astonishing given that it had a reserve price of between €70,000 and €90,000.

The final high bidders were divided in their plans for the vehicle, with the European winner planning to display the car in its present condition.

An extremely rare 1970s Swiss supercar prototype is one of the starring attractions at Bonhams’ Retromobile sale in Paris on Jan. 23.

To show the world that Swiss engineering could keep up with the likes of Lamborghini, Maserati and Ferrari, Peter Monteverdi built the Hai 450 in 1970.

Painted in a unique shade of magenta, the Hai 450 SS prototype debuted at the 1970 Geneva Auto Show.

A rare Bugatti that has spent 73 years at the bottom of a Swiss lake is expected to fetch more than €90,000 at auction, the same as a brand new luxury motor.

The 1925 open-top Type 22 is known as the Bugatti Brescia, after the Italian track where the model took the top four places at a race in 1921.

It is now believed that it belonged to Max Schmuklerski, a Swiss-Polish architect who left it in store in a builder’s yard.

Bonhams will auction off what is believed to be the world’s second-largest documented pearl, a five-pound gem found off the coast of the Philippines.

Dubbed the “Palawan Princess,” the gem is next to the 14-pound “Pearl of Allah” in size that was also found off the coastal waters of the Philippines.

The natural non-nacreous pearl was found in saltwater near the Philippines’ Palawan island and “bears an uncanny resemblance to a human brain”.

A 66 million-year-old skeleton of one of the largest known Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered will be up for sale at an auction in LasVegas on October 3.

The rare skeleton - dubbed ‘Samson’ - is arguably one of the three most complete specimens to have been discovered, auction house Bonhams said.

Native to North America, Tyrannosaurus rex is recognized as the ‘Tyrant Lizard King’ and is the most famous of the behemoths of the “Age of Dinosaurs.”

One of the earliest Bugatti racing cars is expected to fetch up to 2.4 million euros ($3.4 million) at a sale in France, said auction house Bonhams.

Built in 1912, it was raced by by the manufacturer’s eponymous founder, Ettore, at Le Mans and on the Mont Ventoux.

Compared to the other Bugattis of the era, it has an unusually large engine and uses chains to drive the rear wheels.