Barn Find Ferrari sells for Crazy Money

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Barn Find Ferrari sells for Crazy Money

Have you checked Granddad’s shed lately? Maybe you should. You never know, maybe he had a thing for collecting Ming pottery or Faberge Eggs or old cars. He could be like the French businessman who collected classic cars back in the 50s, 60s and 70s but never got around to restoring them before dying ten years ago. The family apparently didn’t know the cars were worth much, but they were wrong…
The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider sold for a whopping NZ$26 million making it the fifth most expensive car ever sold and the most expensive of this model, a model that features 13 times in the top 100 most expensive cars list. Only a year or so ago an immaculate example of the same Ferrari sold for just over $20M so it seems the bidders really liked the rustic look and pigeon poo. The rest of the collection made a few more million on top for the lucky benefactors.

So it would seem that the economy is doing ok for wealthy car collectors whose appetite for dusty old cars found in barns is stronger than ever.

The 60 car collection was discovered only four months ago and was auctioned last week by French auction house, Artcurial. The cars were owned by a transport magnate by the name of Baillon. He amassed over 200 rare cars but many were sold off in the 70s when his business hit hard times. What remained was pretty amazing though. There were some very rare and desirable cars as well as a Mk3 Cortina. The star of the show was undoubtedly the Ferrari discovered under a pile of magazines and was once owned by actor Alain Delon. There are apparently even photos of Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine in the car back in the day.

Last I checked, my shed only contained a cheap lawnmower and some rusty garden tools – oh well.