THE MARKET
Competition cars and pre-war stars shine at February sales
What’s sold and selling; buy a Ford pick-up
RÉTROMOBILE REMAINS one of Europe’s best events for attracting an international audience even after more than 40 years, and once again Artcurial dominated the show’s trio of Paris auctions this year. Top seller was a ’65 Ferrari 275 GTB with a great race history – chassis 6785 – which sold for €2,502,800.
Artcurial recorded total sales of €23m, selling 70% of all the cars it offered. Competition cars proved the most popular, among which a beautifully original 1966 Porsche 906 reached €1,730,600 and a 1936 Delahaye 135S made €917,800. As seems traditional for the French auction house, twoe x-Johnny Hallyday cars were sold. One was the Ford Mustang GT 390 Coupé GR1 that Hallyday raced to second place at Montlhéry in 1967, thought t o be the last surviving Écurie Ford France Mustang. It sold for €244,400.
After some disappointing results towards the end of 2019, Bonhams’ Grand Palais Sale represented a return tof orm for the auction house. It sold the most valuable lot of the week within its sale total of €19,693,000. A 1932 Bugatt iT yp e5 5 Roadster with 56 years of single-family ownership contributed €4.6m to the tally, after much buyer competition.
Pre-war cars in genera l did well there, the 1931 Invicta 4½-litre S-Type Low Chassis Sports with unique coachwork by Carbodies (pictured right) proving a particular highlight. The €1,610,000 final figure not only exceeded the top estimate but also achieved a record for the marque at auction.
Other Bonhams highlights included a 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Cabriolet A at €1,610,000 and a Brooklands-winning 1934 Talbot AV105 Sports Racer at €879,750. The first of the re-invented, Ferrari F430-based, MAT New Stratos Coupés to be offered at auction attracted a final bid of €690,000.
RM Sotheby’s offered a total of 97 cars at its Paris auction just down the road at Place Vauban, selling 75% of them for €16.5 million. A big chunk of that came from the headline Poster Car Collection, which totalled €6.5m alone – led by a 1958 BMW 507 Series II at €1,996,250. Close behind was a matchingnumbers 1964 Porsche 904 GTS at €1.91m.
The Veyron market is a tricky one to judge, but the 2012 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport demonstrated buyers’ healthy appetite for this hypercar, judging by the on-estimate sale price of €1.52 million.