The allure of the barn find
05/11/2014
Cars were auctioned off again yesterday evening in Monaco, rarities from Ferrari and Maserati to Porsche, sports and racing cars. Towards the end of the auction, it was the turn of two restoration objects. Lot 183 was an Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 Spider Veloce 1600 from 1965, described as being in "barn find condition".
According to the auction catalog, the Spider on offer was one of the last 600 Spiders ordered and a correct Veloce (tipo 101.18). The car was originally sold to Germany and shone with a blue paint job when it was delivered. Later the paint changed and the interior was probably also changed, although it remained black. The engine appeared to be the correct one, but it didn't run. RM Auctions had estimated it at between 30,000 and 40,000 euros; according to Classic Data, the market price for a Spider in condition 1 is currently 36,100 euros. According to Classic Data, around 10,000 euros are paid for condition 4 to 5.
Not so in Monaco. The first bid started at €5,000, then quickly rose to €15,000, €25,000 and finally €40,000 in increments of €2,500. The buyer has to add 12% commission and transportation/customs and other charges, so that this Spider could easily cost over 50,000 euros if a German bidder wins the bid. The complete restoration should then push the price to well over 100,000 euros. Unbelievable, isn't it? What could have possessed this buyer?
We have become accustomed to the fact that original cars can be worth a little more, even if they are pure restoration objects, but here we can be a little surprised.
Incidentally, there was a second barn find for sale, namely an Iso Rivolta IR 300 GT Coupé from 1963. Although much rarer and hardly less attractive than the Giulia Spider, a lady was able to get hold of this green sports car, which would certainly cost a lot of money to restore, for 20,000 euros.
We have of course also documented and published the complete results of the RM Auction Monaco 2014 .
