BARN FIND COLLECTION

After being hidden for decades, more than 200 classic cars have been discovered locked away in a remote South African barn and put up for sale.

The sale of a nondescript tract of land near a settlement between nothing and nowhere was the unlikely catalyst for a series of events that led to the chance discovery of one of the world’s largest ever automotive barn find treasure troves. It belonged to the late Oom Louis Coetzer, and with this latest discovery bringing the total number of cars now known to have been owned by him to more than 600 vehicles, it cements Coetzer’s place in history as amassing the biggest individual car collection ever chronicled in that country.

The find will be going under the hammer at the end of March with Creative Rides Classic & Collectibles Auctions. The company's CEO Kevin Derrick said the 334-lot sale will feature approximately 200 cars from the collection that include Mercedes-benzes, Chevrolets, Holdens, Fords, Cadillacs, Alfas, De Sotos, Porsches and BMWS. The remaining lots will comprise hundreds of items of automobilia, engines, spares, books, original workshop manuals and a wide variety of original body parts from bumpers to tail lights. This is on top of the 286 vehicles sold from the Coetzer collection in 2020.

Joff van Reenen, Lead Auctioneer for the company, said: 'It’s difficult to put into words the emotion I felt taking those first steps over the threshold into the dim expanse of a barn at least the size of three tennis courts, and seeing row after row of cars disappearing into the distance like a slumbering regiment awaiting a call to arms. As it turned out, more than 200 cars were hidden in the shadows of that barn and subsequently also across several farms near Barkly East in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, a discovery made more than three years after the untimely passing of Oom Louis and his beloved wife Hermien.'

Derrick says the true scale and global significance of Oom Louis’ Lost Barn Collection became evident soon after the mammoth cataloguing process began. 'I’d struggle to name a single undiscovered, completely unknown barn collection of this size ever found outside of the United States,' he said. 'It’s crazy; more than 200 cars!

Collectors don’t know about any of them and they’ve never been on public display. In the auction preparations, we have intentionally left the vehicles in as close to discovery condition as possible so that collectors across the world can appreciate for themselves the historic magnitude of this incredible find.'

The 10-day, online-only auction will go live on the Creative Rides app at precisely 8am Central African Time on Monday, March 25th. The app is a free download on both IOS and Android. Quick links are also available at www. creativerides.co.za. The app is the only platform on which bids will be accepted and the bidding currency worldwide will be in South African rands (ZAR).