Bellevue Hill trophy-home collector Bonnington takes second-prize in Sydney's auction stakes

Art collector John Schaeffer has long been known as one of Sydney’s most avid trophy-home collectors, and on Thursday night he added another scoop to his statistics – Sydney’s second-highest auction result.

Schaeffer’s heritage-listed Bonnington mansion in Bellevue Hill scored silver in the property stakes when it sold under the hammer for $20.4 million.

The only residential property to sell for more at auction has been the Bellevue Hill property Le Manoir, sold by the French government in 2009 for $23 million to Lachlan Murdoch and his wife, Sarah.

However, despite hot competition for the 1930s residence, Mr Schaeffer actually made a loss in his brief six-month ownership of the property.

He paid $20.5 million for it six months ago from the executors of late businessman and property developer Neville Christie.

Before that, the Tudor-style manor last traded 56 years ago for £36,500 when sold by merchant James Brown Milne, who bought the 2200-square metre residence from the Rona estate in 1934.

Ray White Double Bay’s Elliott Placks and Ashley Bierman had five registered buyers at the on-site aution, with four competitive bids to follow the opening bid of $17.25 million.

Sydney’s third-highest auction result was in 2010 when a Point Piper mansion sold under the hammer for $17.3 million.

Fourth was in 2013 when the Bellevue Hill estate Sundorne sold for $15,501,000 to Cranbrook School.

Rounding out the top-five was the sale of a beachfront house in Vaucluse in 2015 for $15.3 million to rag trader Bob Locke.

Mr Schaeffer’s catalog of trophy homes is well documented. He purchased the Bellevue Hill estate Rona in 1989 for $9.6 million, and sold to property tycoon Terry Agnew in 2004 for $20.5 million.

In 2002 he paid a then record of $20.7 million for the Spanish mission-style house Boomerang on the Elizabeth Bay waterfront, but it was sold as part of his divorce settlement three years later for $20 million to trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox.