French Barn-Find Cars Fetch Nearly $30 Million


The numbers are in from the Rétromobile Exhibition, a classic-car auction held in Paris at the end of last week. The Baillon Collection—the 60 cars found rotting in barns, sheds, and other similarly dilapidated buildings on an estate in western France—sold for $28.5 million, according to Artcurial, the auction house handling the sale.

The collection, dubbed a “barn find,” included many rare cars and created an international stir when it was discovered late last year. A 1961 Ferrari 250GT SWB California Spider that was part of the collection sold for $18.5 million, including the buyer’s premium. Artcurial had offered a presale estimate of $12–$15 million for the car, but the actual sale price broke a record for that particular model.

'61 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider sold for $18.5 million
’61 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider sold for $18.5 million

Once owned by Alain Delon, a French actor, the Ferrari had been photographed with Delon and actress Jane Fonda. The weathered car fetched more than a pristine red version of the same model that sold for $15.2 million last summer at Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach auction. Before that, the record for a ’61 Ferrari 250GT SWB California Spider had been held by a gleaming black example that had been owned by James Coburn, of The Magnificent Seven fame—it had sold for $11 million in 2008.

Aside from the high-dollar ’61 Ferrari, the Baillon collection—once the prize of a French transport magnate named Roger Baillon—featured many rare and sought-after cars, including a 1956 Maserati A6G 2000 that sold for $2.2 million, a 1966 Ferrari 275GTB Berlinetta that fetched the same amount, and a 1949 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport SWB that sold for $1.9 million.

'56 Maserati A6G 2000 Gran Sport Berlinetta brought $2.2 million
’56 Maserati A6G 2000 Gran Sport Berlinetta brought $2.2 million

All of the Baillon cars sold at the auction, with the top seven coming in at $1 million or higher. According to Artcurial, Baillon had begun collecting the cars in the mid-1950s. But two decades later, financial problems forced him to shed 50 of them. The remaining fleet had been stashed in little pockets around his estate since then.

Baillon died a decade ago and Artcurial said his son, Jacques Baillon, who had inherited the cars, didn’t realize their value. He died last year, and his children decided to cash in on their grandfather’s decomposing legacy.

    Artcurial said that Baillon the elder had wanted to make a museum out of his collection. His dream was never realized, but the cars did create an international spectacle. And he didn’t even have to maintain them. The collection pulled in a lot of money for the involved parties, but it also further cemented a recent-ish trend that has seen people (and their wallets) going bonkers for dusty barn-find vehicles.

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