State of emergency in Paris
02/08/2018
Neither the exhibitors nor the visitors to the Rétromobile Paris would have imagined it like this! Before the start of the international classic car fair, a considerable amount of snow fell in the city on the Seine, almost turning Paris into a winter health resort. Around 10 to 15 cm was enough to cause traffic to first collapse and then practically disappear. Many Parisians left their cars at home yesterday, while the usually numerous motorcycles and scooters remained under the blanket of snow. So while there was hardly any progress on Paris' roads on Tuesday, traffic flowed steadily on Wednesday, albeit somewhat slower than usual due to the slippery conditions.
However, the amount of snow even had an impact on yesterday's RM/Sotheby's auction. Part of the tent in which the auction cars were displayed and sold was in danger of collapsing and had to be closed off. This meant that the cars had to be crammed into even less space than usual, especially as a new volume record was once again "celebrated" with over 80 lots.
It remains to be seen whether the orchestrated chaos meant that the particularly valuable cars could not be sold. In any case, neither the Ferrari 275 GTB from 1965 (highest bid EUR 2.2 million), nor Johnny Hallyyday's Iso Grifo A3C from 1964 (EUR 1.97 million) or the Ferrari 166 MM Spider from 1953 (EUR 3.85 million) found a buyer. On the other hand, other cars that would have coped better with the snow achieved sales success, such as the 1995 Lancia Delta Integrale, which was knocked down for an impressive EUR 140,000.
In any case, the weather and its effects were the talk of the town and we will see how the road conditions and temperatures develop over the next few days.
We will of course be reporting in detail on the fair and the auctions.
