Stories with lots of superlatives often seem implausible, and the announcement from Artcurial published today is also hard to believe at first. A forgotten car collection with 60 vehicles was discovered in the west of France. And because it was the people at Artcurial who made the discovery, these vehicles will be auctioned off on February 6, 2015, at Artcurial's Rétromobile auction.
The collection is called the "Ballot Collection" and it lay dormant for around 50 years. The cars are obviously largely complete, but the ravages of time have played havoc with them.
The vehicles include works by famous coachbuilders: Million-Guiet, Chapron and Saoutchik.
Three Talbot Lago T26s, including a particularly rare Grand Sport Aérodynamique and the extravagant convertible once bought by King Farouk, are on display.
Also among a pile of magazines was the Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider, which was once bought by Gérard Blain and then passed on to Alain Delon, who was pictured in it with Jane Fonda and Shirley McLaine.
The Maserati A6G 2000 Gran Sport with Frua bodywork, which was parked right next to the California Spider, is likely to be of similar interest.
The collection was built up in the 1950s by Roger Baillon, a transport entrepreneur. He dreamed of a large pre-war and post-war collection, but had to give up this idea in the 1970s when his company was in a bad way and he had to sell around 50 cars. He kept the rest, but probably had neither the time nor the money for the necessary restoration work.
Many of the vehicle stories are still to be unraveled, but by February 2015, much more will be known about some of these cars - Zwischengas will report in detail on the Talbot and the Maserati, among others - and in total, the sale of the collection is likely to bring in a significant sum in the double-digit millions.
Complete list of vehicles
- Amilcar C6 Berline
- Amilcar CGS
- Ariès Coach
- Auto Union Cabriolet
- Avions Voisin C15
- Avions Voisin Limousine C15
- Avions Voisin C7 par Gallé
- Ballot 8 cyl Limousine
- Barré torpédo
- Berliet Coupé Chauffeur
- Berliet Type VIGB 10HP Taxi Landaulet
- Bugatti 57 Ventoux
- Citroën Trèfle Delage D6
- Delage D8 Coach
- Delahaye 135 Cabriolet Faget Varnet
- Delahaye 135 Coach Chapron
- Delahaye 235 Coach Chapron
- Delahaye 235 Coach Chapron
- Delahaye 235 Coupé Chapron
- Delahaye Type 43 Coupé Chauffeur
- Delahaye GFA 148 L
- Delahaye Type 43 Camionnette
- Delaunay Belleville Limousine VL8
- Facel Vega Excellence
- Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider
- Ferrari 308 GTS i
- Ferrari 400
- Ferrari Mondial 3.2L convertible
- Hispano Suiza H6B cabriolet Millon-Guiet
- Hotchkiss convertible
- Innocenti S cabriolet
- Jaguar type S 3.4 L
- La Buire 12 A
- Lagonda LG45 cabriolet
- Lancia Thema 8.32
- Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 plateau
- Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 torpédo par Grumman
- Lorraine-Dietrich torpédo
- Maserati A6G 2000 Gran Sport Frua
- Mathis cabriolet
- Mathis FOH
- Packard Cabriolet Super Eight
- Panhard-Levassor Dynamic berline X77
- Panhard-Levassor Dynamic coupé X76
- Panhard-Levassor limousine X72
- Porsche 356 SC ex-Sonauto
- Renault AX torpédo
- Renault Vivastella cabriolet
- Sandford cyclecar 3 roues
- Singer convertible
- Talbot Lago 11/6 convertible
- Talbot Lago Baby convertible
- Talbot Lago Baby convertible
- Talbot Lago Cadette 11
- Talbot Lago coach
- Talbot Lago T26 coach
- Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport coupé Saoutchik
- Talbot Lago T26 Record coupé Saoutchik
- Talbot Lago T26 cabriolet Saoutchik ex-Roi Farouk
A video (on YouTube) shows the collection from a "moving" perspective:
