The World's Most Expensive Humidors
All cigar aficionados need a humidor (or a few) to keep their cigars in ideal condition, and you can get a fine one for around $1,000. But over the years a precious few have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars, at auction. These special humidors, ranked in ascending order, stand out for their expense and rarity, and the final one on this list is the most expensive humidor ever to go under the hammer.
2017—The Strange Cohiba Humidor That Captured The Night: $411,000
It didn’t matter that the final evening of the 2017 Habanos Festival was dedicated to Montecristo—that night Cohiba stole the show. With its tall, sleek pedestal and bizarre sculpture of a golden Taino Indian head seeming to float on top, the large humidor begged for attention at the auction—and certainly got it, inciting an aggressive bidding war. While the humidor’s design would certainly make a statement in anyone’s living room, it was probably what was inside that inspired such interest: 580 Cohiba cigars, including 20 each of the prized Behike trio (BHK52, BHK54 and BHK56) as well as 25 of the Majestuosos 1966 anniversary smokes. The bidding battle ended in victory for investor Leander D'Silva of Apéro, part of a Toronto investment firm. He won the lot with a winning bid of 380,000 euros, which today converts to about $411,000.
2011—The Monolith That Came To The Rescue: $487,000
If you were in Havana on the night of February 26, 2011, you’ll bidding seemed on the conservative side at the annual humidor auction closing the Habanos Festival. Nothing broke 100,000 euros, and one lot even went unsold because it couldn’t make reserve. That all changed when the final lot went to the auction block. It was a curved, Cohiba humidor standing four-and-a-half feet tall that Habanos described as “monolithic” with a sheer façade and segmented body meant to represent the layers of a rolled up tobacco leaf. Suddenly, the auction got some life. Bidding soared into the hundreds of thousands until the lot was won by José Maria Palacios Fernández of Spain’s Altadis S.A. for 450,000 euros. Back then, it amounted to more than $600,000, but today, it’s closer to $487,000. Either way, it’s a lot of money, and one of the priciest humidors Habanos ever sold.
1996—The JFK Humidor Bought By Marvin R. Shanken: $575,000
“I had no intention of spending $575,000 Tuesday night, April 23, at the Sotheby's auction of the estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The only thing I knew was that I wanted President John F. Kennedy’s humidor, a present to him from Milton Berle on JFK’s inauguration day in 1961.” So wrote Marvin R. Shanken in the Summer 1996 edition of Cigar Aficionado (the magazine was a quarterly back in those early days). Shanken started bidding when the bids were well over $100,000; when the price soared to a quarter of a million, it was down to him and a bidder on the phone.
“At $400,000, there was a long pause from the phone bidder. I instinctively knew we were at or near his limit; I had ed mine minutes before, so I was already beyond caring about the amount. Now it was about the humidor,” wrote Shanken.
“Almost in a dream, I heard the gavel slam down and the auctioneer say, ‘Sold!’ amid the cheers in the room. Not knowing who I was, auctioneer Diana Brooks, the president and CEO of Sotheby’s, said from the podium, ‘I hope you like cigars.’ Little did she know!”
The humidor one of the greatest cigar smokers of all time. “The humidor, and all that it means to cigar smokers who revere President John F. Kennedy, is now preserved,” Shanken wrote. “Cigar Aficionado has now become the guardian of an important symbol, a legacy of JFK’s love of a fine cigar. It is an honor.”
2005—Michael Jordan, Rush Limbaugh And Sidney Frank Buy Marvin’s Mystery Box: $1.8 Million
Cigar Aficionado’s the one held in April 2005. The final lot was Marvin’s Mystery Box, a special Elie Bleu humidor commissioned by Marvin R. Shanken, containing Cuban cigar bands inlaid in the marquetry.
The piece drew the interest of some very famous dinner guests: Rush Limbaugh and Sidney Frank (who was bidding over the phone, via Lee Einsidler). The price went higher and higher, until it reached $300,000. Auctioneer Shanken offered to triple the lot, selling one to each man, and financier Michael Milken matched the amount, for a total of $1.8 million.
2020—The First Humidor To Reach $2 Million
Few were expecting the 2020 Habanos Festival auction to draw record bids. After all, the Coronavirus pandemic was starting to spread, spooking world stock markets and casting a bit of a pall on the celebration. But records fell—in a big way—once this auction began. The final lot, a large Cohiba humidor filled with treasures, sold for 2.4 million euros ($2.6 million) to Chinese businessman Li Thet.
2022—The Record Keeps Climbing: $2.8 Million
It was a warm September evening on the last night of the Cohiba 55 Aniversario celebration in Havana. Much smaller than a typical Habanos Festival, this event only drew 650 people. One of those people was Jimmy Ng, a world-class cigar collector from Singapore who was about to make history. When the auction started for the Cohiba 55 Aniversario humidor—loaded with 550 Cohibas of all shapes and sizes—Ng ended up winning the lot with a record-breaking bid of 2.8 million euros ($2.8 million), at the time the highest amount ever recorded at a Habanos humidor auction.
2023—The $4 Million Humidor
There hadn’t been an official Habanos Festival since 2020, but in February of 2023, the festival had returned, and the bidding on the last night was quite aggressive. Always the show-stealer, the Cohiba humidor of the night held 500 cigars, including everything from regular-production Cohibas and Behikes to limited editions like the Cohiba 1966 and Sublimes. Once the humidor was on the block, it didn’t take long for the bidding to reach the millions. The old record was shattered when the Cohiba humidor finally sold for 4.2 million euros ($4.4 million). At the time, it was the most ever paid for a single lot at the Habanos Festival.
2024—A New High: 4.5 Million Euros
The 2024 Habanos Festival auction was dedicated to the 55th anniversary of Trinidad, but at the end of the day it was a Cohiba humidor that stole the spotlight. The gala dinner was a night of big bids. Humidor after humidor sold, all but one going for prices of $1 million or more. When a stunning Trinidad humidor came to the block, it sold for a whopping 3.8 million euros, or about $4.1 million. But the night was only getting started.
Nothing commands the dollars (or euros) like Cohiba. The brand carries considerable fame, and each time a Cohiba humidor goes on the block it sells for prices that are dear. For this auction, the Cohiba humidor was rendered as a branded cube that swivels on a base. The large, rotating humidor came filled with 500 Cohibas, including such rarities as Behikes (in all three sizes), Novedosos, Ambars and 55 Aniversarios. The bidding quickly escalated, going ever higher, and at the end of the evening a new record was set when it sold for 4.5 million euros.
2025—The All-Time Record Breaker: $4.8 Million
The final night of the 2025 Habanos Festival was all about Cohiba Behike, and fittingly the evening’s final humidor, dedicated to the brand, set a new record, selling for 4.6 million euros ($4.8 million) at auction. It was the punctuation mark on a festive night where a sold-out crowd of 1,400 people from around the world enjoyed an evening of incredible cigars and fine entertainment.
The majestic, curved humidor came stuffed with 400 Cohiba Behike BHK cigars, including 100 of the BHK 58, introduced to the world for the first time that very night. The only question after this record was set, was how long will the record last?
Last updated March 3, 2025.
