Ryan Wedding’s MotoGP Collection: Starting Prices Far Below the FBI Estimate

• Auction on 11 and 12 November 2026 in Mexico City, registration closes on 10 November
• Starting prices from 21,500 to 2,547,200 pesos (around €1,030 to €121,980 / $1,150 to $136,190)
• Includes numerous Ducati Desmosedici GP bikes, 500cc two-strokes from the 1980s and a Honda RC213V

When the pictures went around the world in December 2025, there was talk of a treasure worth around €35.8 million ($40 million): long rows of racing machines in a warehouse, many of them in the colours of the Ducati factory team from MotoGP. Almost a year later, Ryan Wedding’s motorcycle collection is going under the hammer. Mexico’s Institute for Returning Stolen Goods to the People (Instituto para Devolver al Pueblo lo Robado, INDEP for short) is offering the motorcycles together with aircraft, boats, jewellery and armoured cars in a large in-person auction. The starting prices already show how far apart the estimate and the market are.

When and where will the Ryan Wedding motorcycle collection be auctioned?

The auction takes place on Wednesday, 11 November, and Thursday, 12 November 2026, from 9 a.m. each day in the Ambrosía event hall at Periférico Sur 3395 in Mexico City. Anyone wishing to bid must register by Tuesday, 10 November, and pay a security deposit by the same day.

In total, the auction comprises 620 lots of movable goods. The motorcycles are only part of it, but they are the part the authority itself is putting in the spotlight. INDEP publishes the terms, the procedure and the complete lot list on its auction portal. Every motorcycle can be found there by its lot number, along with its starting price. To make sure everything runs properly, representatives of the institute’s internal control body, a notary and members of the management are present during the auction.

All the motorcycles are stored at the same address in the Azcapotzalco district in the north of Mexico City. It is one of the properties that were searched in December.

Legally, the case is not entirely closed yet. The motorcycles are part of Mexico’s asset forfeiture procedure, known as extinción de dominio. Under it, the state seizes goods that are believed to come from criminal activity, even without a criminal conviction against the owner.

Which motorcycles are in the collection?

The collection consists of classic motorcycles, superbikes and genuine Grand Prix prototypes from the 1960s up to 2020. The main brands represented are Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, MV Agusta, Suzuki and Yamaha.

The largest group is made up of Ducati Desmosedici GP bikes. These are factory machines that were built exclusively for MotoGP and were never sold to the public. The catalogue lists Desmosedicis from many generations, including the GP7, the GP8, the GP11 and the GP18, some of them even twice. There is also a 2018 Honda RC213V, a modern MotoGP prototype from the Japanese manufacturer.

Several lots date from the two-stroke era. On offer are a 1984 Honda NS500, a 1987 Honda NSR500 and a 1981 Suzuki RGB500, all Grand Prix machines from the old 500cc class. Also included are a 1984 Honda RVF750R, a 1976 MV Agusta and a 1987 Elf prototype, which the catalogue lists under Ducati and Honda. This machine stands out for its unusual front suspension and single-sided swingarm, which holds the wheel from one side only. The catalogue links a 2001 Ducati 996 Superbike to the year in which Troy Bayliss became Superbike World Champion on a Ducati.

Which riders are associated with the motorcycles?

After the seizure, several machines were attributed to Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso, Loris Capirossi and Andrea Iannone on the basis of the FBI photos. There is also a Moto2 machine from Marc Márquez’s early career and a 125cc bike with Rossi’s race number. However, INDEP itself does not confirm the racing history of the individual motorcycles. Whether a Desmosedici was really raced by a particular rider is therefore not officially established.

Doubts have been around for some time. Former Grand Prix rider Taylor Mackenzie, for example, pointed out that the paintwork on the 125 differs from the colour of Rossi’s real race bikes. On the collector market, replicas and motorcycles rebuilt from original parts are nothing unusual.

61 or 62 motorcycles?

Since the seizure, the Mexican authorities have been speaking of 62 motorcycles. The list INDEP has published for the auction, however, contains only 61 lot numbers. The authority has not explained the discrepancy.

What do the motorcycles cost at the start of the auction?

The starting prices of the motorcycles range from 21,500 to 2,547,200 pesos, which converts to around €1,030 to €121,980 ($1,150 to $136,190). The lowest bid does not apply to a racing machine but to a KTM 390 Duke.

At the top end are the Ducati Desmosedici GP bikes. For these, INDEP is asking between 2,071,700 and 2,547,200 pesos, or around €99,210 to €121,980 ($110,760 to $136,190). The highest starting price on the entire motorcycle list belongs to a Desmosedici GP7.

The starting price is only the minimum bid. The Mexican government is reportedly aiming for revenue of at least around €2.7 million ($3 million).

Is the collection really worth 40 million dollars?

Previous auction prices for comparable racing machines clearly argue against it. With an estimate of around €35.8 million ($40 million), each of the 62 motorcycles would have to be worth around €577,700 ($645,000) on average. That is far above what such machines have fetched at public auctions so far.

The US trade magazine Roadracing World compared the estimate with real sale prices back in January. According to the magazine, a Desmosedici GP11 that Rossi rode to third place at Le Mans in 2011 sold at auction in 2012 for the equivalent of around €279,900 at today’s exchange rate ($312,500). The most expensive motorcycle ever sold at public auction fetched around €1.18 million at today’s exchange rate ($1.32 million). Even a collection with many genuine factory machines would not come close to 40 million at prices like these.

There is also a technical point. When manufacturers sell retired MotoGP motorcycles, they often remove the ECU. A factory machine offered fully operational with its original electronics is therefore the exception.

INDEP’s starting prices are therefore much closer to previously known auction results than the estimate from December. The minimum target of $3 million is less than a tenth of the quoted 40 million.

How did the motorcycles end up in state hands?

The motorcycles were seized on 24 December 2025 during four searches in Mexico City and the neighbouring State of Mexico. Several Mexican security agencies were involved, working together with the FBI, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Alongside the motorcycles, investigators found two luxury cars, artworks, two Olympic medals, ammunition and drugs. A few days later, the FBI published photos of the hall and attributed the collection to Ryan Wedding, who at the time was still on the list of the ten most wanted fugitives.

What has become of Ryan Wedding?

Ryan Wedding was arrested in Mexico City during the night of 22 to 23 January 2026 and flown to the USA. On 26 January, he pleaded not guilty before a federal court in Santa Ana, California. The trial is scheduled to begin on 26 October 2027.

Accounts of how the arrest came about differ. Mexico’s Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said that Wedding had turned himself in at the US embassy. The FBI presented the arrest as the result of a joint operation involving several countries. Wedding’s lawyer denies the version that he surrendered voluntarily. The USA had previously offered a reward of up to around €13.4 million ($15 million) for information on the 44-year-old Canadian.

US prosecutors accuse Wedding of having led a network that allegedly moved cocaine from Colombia via Mexico and Southern California to Canada. He is said to have operated under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel. He is also charged with several murders, including the killing of a US federal witness in Colombia. None of this has been proven so far, and Wedding is presumed innocent. At the Olympics, he competed in just one event: in 2002 in Salt Lake City, he raced for Canada in the parallel giant slalom.

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