While the big auction houses are making a courtesy assault on the Rock to carry out prestigious auctions, the principality has suddenly been moved by the absence of a real local car auction house. A paradox when it is full of exceptional cars, in remarkable condition and very often with very few kilometres, as if the micro-territory restricted their radius of action.
This oversight will be rectified this Thursday, June 8 with the inaugural sale of MonacoCarAuctions™. With an exceptional catalog devoted, nobility obliges of the prancing horse, to the Ferraris of yesterday and today, the organizers have decided to mark their territory from the start, as Laurent Blomet, founding president of MCA, told us.
Le Point: How does being Monegasque change anything at an auction?
Laurent Blomet: Monaco is certainly, in the global unconscious, one of the territories most coveted by luxury brands. One of those unmissable places just like New York, Tokyo, the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The Principality’s image of excellence is a ready-made setting for an auction house like ours, which has the advantage, being Monegasque, of knowing the local market perfectly. If we remember that the region is an exceptional pool of cars that are both rare and meticulously maintained, with low mileage on the odometer, the buyer is sure to make the right choice.
How are you going to differentiate it from other historically established houses like Bonham’s, Sotheby’s or Artcurial?
Still a very elitist approach?
It is a sale that is nevertheless aimed at almost everyone since we also want to attract first-time buyers to Ferrari. It’s a story of passion, even if it can be an investment for some, and we wanted to open the range of prices with, for example, this Ferrari 308 GTS from Qatar and which will deserve a major overhaul but offered without price. reserve. If the initial bid is $25,000, it will start at that price, plus shipping. But several cars will undoubtedly be sold at prices not exceeding that of a new Mini.
Are there stars though, including Alonso’s Ferrari Enzo that could break a record?
At the other end of the spectrum, indeed, there is the exceptional Ferrari Enzo of the Spanish driver which has only 4,800 km on the clock. Its hammer price could smash the record, held at 3.5 million so far, due to its rarity and pedigree. It could reach 5 or even 6 million. We do not know why he separates from it, but he is regularly seen in the streets of the principality at the wheel of a LaFerrari.
We can also mention the 250 GT that raced at the Nassau Grand Prix in 1956. It is one of the 75 Boanos but especially of the 14 produced in aluminium. Unlike the Pininfarina productions that he had come to reinforce while waiting for an additional workshop, it has a softened rear wing line which makes it appear a little lower. There is still this 365 GTC/4 which was the first produced in 1971. Exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show, it was used to illustrate the various catalogs at the time.
Le Point also shopped and picked up the yellow Dino 246 GTS from the former French importer, Daniel Marin. It is in concours condition, better than when it left the factory. Among the curiosities, we will mention the Beach Car imagined by Michelotti for a sheik in Qatar in 1976, without doors or roof as required by the laws of the genre. Based on a GTC/4 delivered in 1972 in Switzerland, it was bought by the small Swiss manufacturer Felber who had it transformed in Turin in 1976. First painted in sky blue with a blue denim interior according to the canons of the 1970s, car chassis no. 16017 was never delivered to the Middle East due to the oil crisis.
Exhibition on June 7 and 8 at the Grimaldi Forum (visits by appointment on the 7th). Sale June 8 from 6 p.m. Catalog and estimates here