An extraordinary collection of classic cars recently discovered in the west of France, were all successfully auctioned off on Friday, making €25.15m at the eagerly anticipated Artcurial Retromobile 2015, in Paris.
The ‘Baillon Collection’ consisted of 60 classic cars which were found after fifty years of sitting idle. The line-up included major marques dating from the early days of the motor car through to the 1970s, with the stand out car being a Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider – which ended up fetching €16.3m at auction.
A 1956 Maserati A6G 2000 Gran Sport that was found alongside the 250 GT was the second most expensive car of the lot, with bids reaching €2m. Other cars included in the auction also attracted a lot of interest; one collector managed to pick himself up a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Berlinetta for €1.9m. A 1968 Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada also sold for a world record price of €1.2m.
This impressive array of cars was put together during the 1950s by Roger Baillon, a car enthusiast who owned his own transport company. His dream was to preserve the cars in his very own museum; however during the 1970’s, his dream was shattered when his business ran into financial difficulty. He was forced to sell around fifty cars, and the rest of his collection remained untouched until recently.
Pierre Novikoff, car specialist of auctioneers Artcurial Motorcars said: “I’m not sure I have ever seen so many exceptional cars together in one collection. Roger Baillon saved these cars and succeeded in his task – to trace the history of the automobile through the finest examples.”
“A collection like this can’t fail to arouse the passions of those who love automobiles, as well as art and history enthusiasts. Never again, anywhere in the world, will such a treasure be unearthed.”
For pictures and video of the entire collection click here.