It's the stuff dreams are made of. After decades, three Bugatti and a Citroën are pulled out of a small garage to be auctioned off by Artcurial on February 8, 2019 at the Rétromobile in Paris.
The video from Artcrurial shows how the cars were rescued. First, 200 sandbags, i.e. around 2.5 tons of sand, had to be cleared away. A Honda-generation Rover was also in the way, then the gate to the find could be opened after removing a few metal plates.
Four cars came to light: a Bugatti 57 Graber from 1937, a Bugatti 49 Berline 2/4 Portes Vanvooren from 1932, a Bugatti 40 from 1929 and a Citroën 5 HP Cabriolet from around 1925.
The history of the cars is even more exciting than their rediscovery.
One of the few Graber-Bugatti
In 1937, the Geneva Bugatti agent Jean Sechaud ordered a Bugatti 57 in Molsheim. Chassis 57500 was presumably delivered by road directly to Hermann Graber in Wichtrach. Graber's artists put an elegant two-door convertible body on the chassis. The car was purchased by Raymond Barbey, the head of the Lombard-Odier bank. With Geneva license plates, the car could often be seen in and around the city on the Rhone. Barbey presumably kept the Bugatti until after the Second World War, when the car came into the hands of August Thomassen in 1951. He hardly ever drove it, and only a few people have seen it since then, until today.
The Graber-Bugatti is expected to fetch EUR 400,000 to 600,000 at the auction in Paris.
A special Vanvooren-Bugatti
In 1932, the Bugatti 49 with chassis number 49487 with a Vanvooren limousine body was presented at the Paris Motor Show. Some time later it was sold and changed hands several times. During the war, the owner hid the rare light alloy wheels so that the Germans could not remove them. The car was hardly used after the war, and in 1957 the aforementioned August Thomassen was able to buy the Bugatti. Incidentally, Thomassen was a sculptor and shared his love of beautiful shapes with Ettore Bugatti.
The Vanvooren four-door is expected to fetch EUR 150,000 to 200,000 in Paris.
The Bugatti 40 as an unfinished car
The third Bugatti that had been with Thomassen since 1958 was a Type 40 from 1928. Chassis 40719 once bore a "Milord" convertible body by a lesser-known Parisian coachbuilder. The car was not officially sold until 1930, and when Thomassen bought it, it had a brown Landaulet body. This was damaged during a rally, so the owner decided to put a four-seater torpedo body on the chassis. He sought support from a former Gangloff body builder. However, the work was not completed.
Estimate is given as EUR 100'000 to 130'000.
Likeable Citroën C5
The quartet in the garage in Belgium was completed by a Citroën C5 with cabriolet bodywork. Registration papers are apparently missing, but it is assumed that the car with chassis number 29123 left the factory in 1925. It was apparently restored years ago.
It is now expected to cost EUR 10,000 to 15,000 and is being offered without a reserve price, just like the three Bugatti cars!
The find is definitely a nice story and even if we're not talking about Grand Prix winners and sports cars here, it's nice to see Bugatti cars that were thought long lost being rediscovered time and again.
More information about the auction in Paris can be found on the Artcurial website.
