Ferrari is the Picasso of the Classic Car World as Prices Triple in 3yrs; Pebble Beach Auctions = $352.4m for 702 Cars

The week-long round of Pebble Beach classic car auctions ended late last week and Bloomberg has the tally at a record $352.4m for 702 sold lots against 1192 cars offered across three auction houses. The stars of the sale cycle were almost exclusively Ferraris.

“The Ferrari market has changed drastically in the past three years,” said Marcel Massini, a Swiss-based Ferrari historian who attended the events. “Prices for these models easily tripled since then.”

Bloomberg’s Katya Kazakina spoke to McKeel Hagerty, who runs the classic car insurer and database:

“The market is the highest it’s ever been,” said McKeel Hagerty, chief executive officer of Hagerty, a Traverse City, Michigan-based insurer and classic car database. “There are new buyers from, Asia, Latin America, some from the Middle East.” […]

“It’s a highly romanticized car,” Hagerty said about the Ferrari 250 GTO model from 1962-63. “Only 39 of them were built. Every single one of them was known from the day it was built. It was the last of what you refer to as a dual purpose car: You can drive it on the street and race it.”

RM Auctions, based in Blenheim, Ontario, offered 32 Ferraris among the 129 cars this year. The sale was led by a 1964 Ferrari 275 GTB/C Speciale, only one of three ever made, that fetched $26.4 million.

A 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 owned by the late actor Steve McQueen, estimated at $8 million to $12 million, sold for $10.2 million at RM Auctions.

A red 1964 Ferrari 250 LM estimated at $8.5 million to $12.5 million sold for $11.5 million.

Gooding, based in Santa Monica, California, had 121 cars for sale during two evening auctions. The first, on Aug. 16, tallied $60.4 million, with 17 cars selling for more than $1 million.

The priciest of the 64 offered lots was a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider that fetched $15.2 million, against the estimate of $13 million to $15 million.

“If this was the art world, these would be the Picassos, the great masterpieces,” said Hagerty.

Red Ferrari Leads Way in $350 Million Classic Car Sales  (Bloomberg)