IT’S A WRAP
The Italian authorities which had impounded one obsessed collector’s hoard, were amazing. The top price paid at the auction was €3.416M for the alloy-bodied 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/6C, which had a presale estimate of €2.4M–2.8M. It is believed that it was bo
Classic car auctions in 2016 finished with a huge extravaganza worthy of the Sydney New Year’s Eve firework display. The result of the RM Sotheby’s Duemila Ruote (Italian for ‘two-thousand wheels’) auction must have shocked the company almost as much as it did the rest of the classic car world. When the dust settled after 30 hours’ auctioneering over three frenetic days, €51.26M in sales had been made — that is over NZ$76.16M! Of that, €47.67M was for cars alone, with the ‘odd change’ made up of sales of bikes, bobsleds, and boats. Some 91 per cent of the lots sold for above the upper estimates, as over 10,000 registered bidders attempted to snap up a bargain at the no-reserve sale.
The marketing and organization of this extravaganza by RM Sotheby’s, on behalf of It was madness in Milan in packed rooms as in-person, internet, and phone bidders frantically fought over the 423 cars on offer, all of which were sold. Of those 423, just 12 went for below their low-end estimate, while 385 sold above their top-end estimate. In total, there were 817 lots on offer, and I am pretty sure that everything found a new home with bidders from 57 countries, including emerging markets such as Russia, Brazil, Turkey, the Middle East, and Asia. As well as the cars, there were also 155 motorbikes, a peloton of 140 bicycles, and an armada of 55 boats on offer in 11 warehouses covering over 18,580m2, which, to give you an idea, is equivalent to about the size of 71 tennis courts! Even I got caught up in the mayhem, and treated myself to an early Christmas present, paying over the estimate for something that needs a total — and I mean total — restoration!
And then, to cap it all, and to show that it is not just a money-grabbing outfit, the same auction house went in to bat for a charitable cause the following weekend at Daytona Beach in Florida. Joining forces with Ferrari, RM Sotheby’s raised US$7M for a
Local success
On the same day, in another area to have had recent earthquake issues, though thankfully not on the same devastating scale, Mossgreen-webb’s firmly established itself in the domestic auction scene with the 100-per-cent successful sale of the Roy Savage Collection of Classic Cars at Paraparaumu. All 30 cars sold, many above their top-end estimate, with the highest winning bid of $258,750 being paid for the 1955 Jaguar XK140 fixedhead coupé, which carried an estimate of $120K–$140K. The sale achieved 138 per cent by value, with many international bidders on the phone and internet, while the crowd of 350 people in the room applauded the sale of each lot, with a portion of the auction proceeds being donated to the Life Education Trust charity.
This followed on from the previous weekend in Melbourne, when Mossgreen held the most successful sale by dollar value in the southern hemisphere for 2016, setting several records along the way, including the highest price paid for a Dino at auction in Australia — A$546,250 for a 1971 Ferrari Dino 246 GT Berlinetta coupé.
It looks like there is still plenty more to come in 2017. Next stop, Scottsdale, Arizona.