The running shoes worn by Britain's Roger Bannister when he broke the four-minute mile have sold at auction for more than $500,000.
Christie's auction house in London said the lightweight leather spikes worn by Bannister when he set the milestone more than 60 years ago went to an anonymous buyer on Thursday for STG266,500 ($A584,000).
The price was much higher than expected with the initial estimate being between 30 and 50,000 pounds ($A110,000).
Bannister became the first runner to break the fabled four-minute barrier when he achieved a time of 3min 59.4sec on May 6, 1954, at the Iffley Road Track in Oxford.
His rivalry with Australia's John Landy, who bettered his time a month later with a 3min 58sec run, was one of the greatest in athletics history, with the pair going head to head at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in the Miracle Mile, listened to by an estimated 100 million people worldwide on the radio.
Bannister prevailed on the line in an amazing finish that was immortalised in a bronze sculpture that still stands in the Canadian city.
The Englishman said the shoes were his "last tangible link" to the achievement.
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