This is what I call a Garage Find

Unfortunately it seems that few, if any, can be preserved as opposed to restored.

 

Well these are what is left of a collection that had about 300 cars when the owners business was during really well in the 70's.

Artcurial's announcement is not big surprise. It was known. The "tour auto" went to the town where the collection was located at least once. In fact the son's owner, before he died tried to juridicly "preserve" the collection for the family with the help of solicitors (french notaire) but as the potential value of the cars is so high these days and the fact that french taxes are on the rise, people who are still honest and declare what they own in France don't have any chance i'm afraid.

It reminds me of the michel dovaz story.

This will probably be for the next 25 years the last barnfind for a car this rare.

Even though there are still some collections in France who can probably, i'm afraid go down Artcurial's hammer in the next few years or decades like le "Musée Malartre" or "le manoir de l'automobile" at lohéac.

I don't know how these two collections will cope but This is the sunset of french big collections. Well it goes with the sunset of France i suppose.

As far as the ferrari is concerned, i think a mechanical restoration will be done like the Ex 250 TDF of Jean claude Bajol rebuild by DK Engineering. However it may run, who knows. But with this very car, even if it is just a piece of junk, it can be as expensive as a perfectly restored one, like a bottle of famous wine that has never been opened for 150 years. However, the wine is not drinkable whatever you try to do whereas for the car… it will work, no doubt about that.

 

According to Sudan Vision Daily-Details, Yahoo News broke the story "7 hours 34 minutes ago".In this day and age word sure gets out around the world fast. I did a brief search of Yahoo News and couldn't find the story so I will have to take the word of Sudan Vision Daily.Cheers tongascrew

 

Niceeeee

 

how is it that 2 generation never thought to go check out those barns? actually seems impossible to me.
if the kids and grandkids were too busy how about a caretaker, gardener? I actually don't buy the story

 

The entire scenery looks like it never saw a gardener, etc.! If the property is huge then there are always parts that became out of sight - and in particular in the country side!

I know of a pre-war Maserati Tipo 26-body, still with its 30s paint and race-no. on it, sleeping in an Italian barn in the country side, buried under loads of crap! Saw it 10 years ago and the old man doesn`t want to sell and he also doesn`t want to show it to somebody.
I was -secretly- taken to it on an very early Sunday morning by his son without permission by the old man.

There are still some tresures around.

The Maserati 300S, chassis #3052 (ex-Briggs Cunningham) was never seen since 1964. I assume its still somewhere "buried" in the US.

Today a very good 300S is a US$ 10m-car....

 

Incredible.

 

For 10 years I tried directly with the owner. He was the type of old guard that would never sell anything, ever. I managed to buy a handful of much needed pieces 2 years ago, and moved in for more and the music stopped quickly. As soon as he died, it became very complicated as many heirs and then the Omen of the French fiscal looming ,erecting the guillotine for the heirs.

Another story of hoarding for the stake of hoarding. The old man knew his cars, and could ID an engine from a glance and tell you where it came from and which races it did.]

It took the savvy of Pierre Novikoff and Matthieu Lamoure to pull this off, and no amount of money could have done this deal. It took saying, playing and understanding the entire situation from tax issues to family feuding that is the French the way of life , plus having the car smarts to pull it off.

These had to go to auction to settle such a complicated hoarding opportunity. Hats off to them, it is the score of the decade . Bravo.

I hope someone does a book !!!!

 

Love these stories, but still find it hard to believe...I mean, the 250 California is in relatively good order from what can be seen in the pictures! Tyres still inflated? Really? I mean, don't doubt it was some kind of "barn find", but these pictures look a bit staged just to make a nice story a bit nicer and maybe help surrounding the auction with a lot of hype?

Amazing cars nonetheless!

 

I'm afraid that same thing might happen here in Croatia. Our biggest collector or hoarder, whatever you might call him, died a month ago and I can't see anyone here who can afford to take over his 100+ cars collection. No Ferraris there, I'm afraid, but a lot of Abarths, Alfas, 356s, 190 SLs, Formula juniors and Super Vees...

Speaking of collections not seen for decades, they are still there. I know a guy that has two barns full of pre-WW II cars and in 30 years maybe just half a dozen people got invited to see it. If such a thing is possible in my country (relatively poor and pretty under-motorized until 1970s) I'm sure that in USA, France, Italy and other places with much longer and richer tradition there are still collections well hidden away. Maybe not of such a high profile like this one but interesting ones for sure.

 

This is what I call a barn find....

Finding Real Automotive Treasure - Interview, Photos

 

I do agree with others above that the Cali under the magazines does look very "stagey" compared to the other cars shown.

 

Agreed, Cali photos is/looks arranged.

 

Are you saying it did not spend 40 years sitting in that field?

 

Of course the photos are staged, I'm surprised so many think that they weren't. It's part of the sale process. From now on all of this is one big commercial for the auction. Like some have said here, this collection was not unheard of, neither was it completely inaccessible. The Artcurial guys just managed to land this particular lot. They obviously went over all the cars, and seeing as the Maserati and California are conveniently located in their own garage, it's easier to take those pictures, especially the one with all the magazines on top of the car...

What i'm trying to say is, these pictures are definitely not of the cars "as found". At least I would be incredibly surprised if they were.

 

Im not talking about the field photo

+1

 

Why would the Ferrari have magazines stacked on it and not the Maserati?

 

Not enough magazines....

 

Maserati don`t like magazines ...

 

No my friend Mr. Bauemer. It is because Ferrari has much more history than Maserati

 

Yes, .....since 1926????

 

One here:

Lade gemte på gylden hemmelighed: Familie fandt arvestykke til 100 millioner - Udland | www.bt.dk

 

The Porsche is the turd of the whole collection IMO, look at the rest of the list who cares about the Porsche?

 

No because it was staged. This is one big PR event. I would bet there were no magazines on those cars

 

+ 1

can't wait to see this car in person