Auction of the barn finds of the century - Artcurial sells entire Baillon collection in Paris at top prices
Summary
The auction of the 59 barn finds from the Baillon collection had been eagerly awaited. Would it really be possible to sell the vehicles, some of which were badly battered and largely rusted, for hundreds of thousands? Visitors to the Artcurial auction were left in awe as every vehicle, with the exception of two lots, went for at least a five-figure sum, with the most expensive, the Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider from 1961, going for around 17 million euros. This beer report shows all the cars, the atmosphere before and during the auction and all the results in detail.
This article contains the following chapters
- Restorers like lions
- Enormous crowd
- Start with a bang
- Top prices
- Rarities particularly in demand
- Normal cars in a high-altitude frenzy too
- Really expensive
- Two gems
- 2.5 hours of high tension
- Results in detail
Estimated reading time: 6min
Preview (beginning of the article)
The excitement was high and the event was marketed by Artcurial in an exemplary manner. The barn find of the century became public knowledge in 2014 and since then there has hardly been a magazine that has not reported on it. At the Rétromobile , the auction company then went one better by showing the vehicles in a darkened hall in the dim light, conjuring up a truly magical atmosphere. Only a certain number of viewers were allowed to see the 59 relics at the same time, which added to the exclusivity. There wasn't too much to see anyway, and hardly any of the cars, with the exception of the Maserati and the Ferrari California Spider, were in a condition that could be classified as less than "5". One of the Artcurial employees would later refer to the vehicles as rolling sculptures, as some of the cars were in a very advanced state of disintegration.
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