which "anonymous collector" bought this lot? >>> Bonhams is delighted to announce the purchase by private treaty of the WilliamsF1 Reserve Collection, ahead of its scheduled auction on December 14 at WilliamsF1 headquarters in Grove, Oxfordshire. A private collector who wishes to remain anonymous bought the Reserve Collection for a substantial undisclosed sum. The Williams F1 Reserve Collection of Formula One cars and related collectibles and memorabilia has attracted worldwide attention since Bonhams first announced it would be sold. The auction, scheduled for December 14, will be replaced by an open day, providing would-be bidders, catalogue holders and enthusiasts with the unique opportunity to visit the nine-times Formula One Constructors' World Champion team's stunning in-house museum. Anyone who has already purchased a Sale catalogue and who prefers not to attend this open day function will be fully refunded upon application to Bonhams.<<< More can be found here: http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=HeadlineDetails&iHeadlineNo=1587
The lots included Cosworth, Honda, Judd, Renault, Supertech and BMW powered cars. BMW's involvement with Williams has been the team's least succesful period, so I doubt BMW has a lot of interest in acquiring anything and I'm sure they'll have a sample of each car already.
Word has it that it's someone from the USA; a lot of collectors (and dealers!) in the UK are pretty annoyed at the cancellation, are hoping that the buyer paid a true value rather than the low 'get the suckers in' catalogue estimates, and that he will offload some of the smaller bits & pieces in time if he really wanted whole cars. Paul M
Didn't Williams also own a Ferrari F1 car from around 1990? Is that part of the sale too? Ciao, Peter
Just got info from Bonhams: "We sold the 1990 Ferrari F1/90 Tipo 641/2 F1 Racing Single-Seater that belonged to Sir Frank Williams, at last year's Gstaad sale on 18 December 2004. The chassis no. was 118. " Ciao, Peter
Yes. They got it directly from Ferrari as part of a pay off for Jean Alesi's contract, which he had already signed for the 1991-season. If only he had known in advance... Poor kid. It is a Nigel Mansell 641/2. I believe it was in the sale. Don't know for sure though. I think Paul Stoddard is the one. He likes this kind of thingies and has got some money to spare as of recently.