Monterey, August 17, 1998
Monterey and the three auctions
Christie’s and the unrestored rarities
Ingrid Bergman and a sale for charity
The MSCA and Wolfgang Seidel’s 250 GT California Spider LWB
Brooks
The Results
Monterey and the three auctions
Since the late 1980’s / early 1990’s, the auctions have become a vital part of the
Monterey weekend. Since the high society and the "who is who" of the classic car
world have declared the weekend of the Monterey Historic Races, the Pebble
Beach Concours d’Elégance and the Concours Italiano the weekend of the year,
many of the important auction companies have decided to go there, too. Even in
the USA it does not happen that often that so many potential buyers for expensive
collector’s cars gather in one place.
Christie’s and the unrestored rarities
The undoubtedly most renowned auction is the one of Christie’s; the auctioneers
from the UK host their sale at the well-known Pebble Beach Golf Club, and it is
always the highlight to mark the end of the eventful weekend.
This year, there has been quite a number of remarkable lots, especially for Ferrari
fans: Having entered the tent – which was held in black completely inside – one
was stunned immediately by two completely original rarities: the 750 Monza Spider
Scaglietti s/n 0568M and the 212 Inter Coupé Vignale s/n 0217EL. Both of them
had spent decades with their last owners, and so this was the first occasion to buy
one of these Ferrari after a very long time.
Ingrid Bergman and a sale for charity
Another Ferrari of particular interest: 212 Inter Coupé Pinin Farina s/n 0265EU,
formerly owned by Ingrid Bergman. Her husband Roberto Rosselini, who had an
excellent relationship to Enzo Ferrari, had bought this small sports car as a
present for the famous actress. Since especially American collectors show very
often a weak spot for once celebrity owned cars, it is somehow no wonder that this
car was eventually sold for the impressive amount of 260.000,-$.
Lot 47 was one of the ten original 275 GTB/S4 NART Spyders, s/n 10691. This car
was sold for charity – the Scripps Research Institute will be happy with the
hammered 1.900.000,-$...
The MSCA and Wolfgang Seidel’s 250 GT California Spider LWB
The largest of the three auctions was the Monterey Sports Car Auction: One had so
many cars to offer that it needed two evenings to perform the sale! Of course the
impressive number of classic cars included some Ferrari as well, including 340
America Coupé Vignale s/n 0196A and the 500 Mondial Spider Pinin Farina s/n
0414MD.
There was also a Ferrari which was of particular interest for visitors and / or buyers
from Germany: The 250 GT California Spider LWB s/n 1489GT, sold new to the
German privateer Wolfgang Seidel from Düsseldorf who subsequently entered this
car in some motor racing events.
A real one-off was the 250 GT Spider Fantuzzi s/n 2235GT. This 1963 250 GTE had
been rebodied on behalf from Luigi Chinetti to be shown at various motor shows in
1965, including the San Francisco Sports Car Show. The new body style
resembles the then quite successful 250 P, although s/n 2235GT did of course not
adopt the latter’s mid-engine.
One more Ferrari among many hammered at the Double Tree Hotel: 500
Superfast, s/n 7817SF.
Brooks
For Brooks Specialist Auctioneers, this was the first time to perform a sale during
the Monterey weekend. One had decided to host the auction at the Quail Lodge,
site of the Concours Italiano. The sale – which was already held on Friday –
included the 500 TRC Spider Scaglietti s/n 0706MDTR and a 275 GTB/4, s/n
10711.
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