When dance music royalty decides to auction off bits of their iconic past, you’d expect a few records to be shattered—just like the ones they played. Paul Oakenfold, the OG of trance and global beat wizard, just turned memorabilia into gold (literally) at Julien’s Auctions in LA.
The “Ready, Steady, Bid” event featured over 150 items from Oakenfold’s personal vault—and fans worldwide went absolutely feral. We're talking bids from the US, UK, France, Japan, and even Brazil. Among the heavy hitters:
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UK Gold Sales Award for Essential Millennium sold for 12x its estimate.
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Madonna’s “Celebration” sales award—3 million copies later—went for 3x estimate.
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A UK Gold Award for Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill? That fetched 7x its expected value.
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Five rare 12-inch U2 remix acetates tripled projections.
Even outside the BPM world, Oakenfold’s eclectic taste flexed its worth:
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A Sean Connery-as-Bond photo by Terry O’Neill sold for 2x.
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A Takashi Murakami lithograph scored 6x its predicted value.
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A Hunter S. Thompson-signed book? You guessed it—7x.
But the real heartstrings came with items like his stage-worn headphones, a custom leather jacket, and rare Madonna remix acetates, all steeped in dancefloor history.
According to Julien’s Auctions, over 250 registered bidders battled for these cultural relics—proving Oakenfold’s influence transcends genres, generations, and even auction houses.
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