Sotheby’s Car Sale Highlights Category’s Growing Value

Sotheby’s held the first car auction to take place in Manhattan in quite some time by partnering with RM Auctions, the Canadian company. The $62.8m sale of 34 cars (plus other related items) was a test of the rapidly gaining in value car market. Although the estimates were aggressive, the sale did well overall and very well in particular instances like the $14.3m Ferrari and the $7.15m Talbot-Lago sold by Jim Patterson (an interview with Patterson is available by clicking through above.) Patterson had three lots in the sale that made a total of more than $10m. Here’s Bloomberg’s Katya Kazakina on the sale:

“There were ups and downs,” said Marcel Massini, a Swiss-based Ferrari historian, who attended the auction. “At this price level, the air is very thin.”

A Maserati A6G/2000 Spyder from 1955 with coachwork by Carrozzeria Zagato sold for $4.5 million, against an estimate of $3.5 million to $4.5 million.

The buyer was Oscar Davis, a swimming pool manufacturer from Elizabeth, New Jersey, who’s been collecting cars since the mid-1950s. With the Maserati, his collection will include 41 vehicles, he said.

A 1959 Ferrari 250 GT SWB “Competition” Berlinetta Speciale, a dual-purpose sports-racing coupe with bespoke coachwork by Bertone, fetched $7 million, within the presale estimate range. It was the third priciest lot of the sale.

Ferrari 250 LM Sells for Record $14.3 Million in New York (Bloomberg)