50 years out of sight: Vintage cars discovered at French farm could net $12mn (PHOTOS)
10 Dec, 2014 17:06 / Updated 10 years ago
Photo from artcurial.com
Around 60 ancient automobiles have been discovered rusting in a farm shed in France. Some of the cars date back to the 1930s. The collection will be sold at auction and it’s hoped they will net at least $12 million.
French company, Artcurial Motorcars, say that among the many
vintage cars discovered are legendary marques: Bugatti,
Hispano-Suiza, Talbot-Lago, Maserati, Ferrari, and Delahaye.
“I have to say that when we arrived here, we found ourselves
overcome with emotion. Probably much like Lord Carrington and
Howard Carter, on being the first person for centuries to enter
Tutankhamun’s tomb. It really was a case of waking up sleeping
beauty,” Matthieu Lamoure, Managing Director of
Artcurial Motorcars, said in a press release on Friday.
The cars were not stored in solid, purpose-built sheds, but in
makeshift constructions.
“We came closer and saw there were dozens of cars parked
underneath. We soon realized that some of these had been put
there 50 years earlier and left untouched,” Pierre Novikoff, a
car specialist, said.
The collection was started in the 1950s by Roger Baillon, an
entrepreneur and car enthusiast, who even exhibited a roadster
built by himself at the Paris Motor Show.
Baillon wanted to create
a pre-war car museum, but due to business problems had to sell a
half of his automobiles. Nobody had heard of the collection for
many years.
Some of the cars have
amazing stories. A Talbot Lago T26s cabriolet once belonged to
Egyptian King Farouk, while a Ferrari 250GT SWB California Spider
was Alain Delon’s. It featured in films with Jane Fonda and
Shirley MacLaine.
“It was thought that
everything had been sold, and its existence had been forgotten
about. And here, we just found the lost collection!” Novikoff
said.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever
seen so many exceptional cars together in one collection. Roger
Baillon saved these cars and succeeded in tracing the history of
the automobile through the finest examples!” he added.
The collection will be auctioned by Artcurial Motorcars at the
Retromobile Salon in Paris on 6 February 2015.