Lehman Brothers' last assets — artwork and signs from failed bank sell for £1.6m

An auction of memorabilia and artwork from Lehman Brothers raised £1.6 million for its creditors.

A commemorative plaque from the opening of the collapsed investment bank's Canary Wharf office in 2004 by Gordon Brown was among the hottest items sold.

It eventually went under the hammer for £28,750, way above an original estimate of £1,000 to £1,500.

More than 1,100 bidders signed up for the event at Christie's, which was ordered by the firm's administrator, PricewaterhouseCoopers to raise cash for those still owed money.

The auction house said "fierce competition" resulted in a sale which lasted more than six hours and realised a final sum that exceeded pre-sale expectations.

Among the items sold was a work by Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, which went for £99,560, and Gary Hume's Madonna, which made £73,250. The sign which adorned the company's office sold for £42,050 - a huge rise on its £2,000 to £3,000 estimate.

In total, some £1,641,613 was raised for creditors during the auction, close to the second anniversary of the bank's collapse, which was the biggest bankruptcy in US history.

Barry Gilbertson, partner at PwC, said: "The prices achieved demonstrate just how much interest there is in anything related to the collapse of Lehman Brothers two years ago. The chance to own a piece of history does not come up very often.

"The administrators were confident that, by holding their nerve for two years and waiting for the art markets to recover, they would be able to realise the optimum return for the creditors."

A further sale planned for next month will see photographer Andreas Gursky's New York Mercantile Exchange auctioned for a price expected to reach between £100,000 and £150,000.