The marketplace
The auction season starter at Scottsdale in Arizona took on a new look in 2021, but still hit record heights with Bonhams, Gooding & Co, RM Sotheby’s and Worldwide Auctioneers all open for business from 18-25 January.
A Jaguar D-type raced by Peter Blond, purchased from up-andcoming dealer Bernie Ecclestone, took top lot at $6m, sold with RM Sotheby’s. The appointment-only sale, with bidding online and via phone, proved the most lucrative of the auctions with $35m changing hands and with a 90% sell-through rate. Nine cars hit seven figures, including a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Tourer by Corsica that is one of only two four-seaters.
At Bonhams, a BMW 507 sold for $1.8m in a delightfully eclectic catalogue that also featured a 1954 Fiat 1100/103 Turismo Veloce Charmant Coupé ($190,400).
Gooding & Co took its sale online, and set another new Bugatti record: the $935,000 paid for the 1926 Type 37 Grand Prix is the most ever under the hammer. A 1966 Ferrari 275GTB ‘Long Nose’ topped the bidding, finding a new home for $1,936,000.
Worldwide Auctioneers moved its Scottsdale sale to its Auburn headquarters in Indiana, with a ’34 Packard Twelve 1107 Phaeton setting a model best at $571,500.
Meanwhile Mecum, with sales on either side of Scottsdale week, set a new record for 427 Cobras when it sold Carroll Shelby’s own car for $5.94m in Florida. The first L88 Chevrolet Corvette fetched $2.5m in the same event.
The annual Barrett-jackson Scottsdale auction will take place from 20-27 March.