Artcurial Retromobile, Paris, February 7, 2020
Artcurial at Retromobile in 2020 had an abundance of wonderful cars. It was, however, the middle and bottom of the market that found buyers. The big money cars struggled, leaving the auction with its weakest performance in years. One of the feature elements, the sale of four gorgeous yachts at no reserve (gorgeous to contemplate, […]
RM Sotheby’s, Place Vauban, Paris, February 5, 2020
RM Sotheby’s left some $14 million on the table with just three lots this year (Jaguar D-type XKD 520, Daytona Spider 15535 and the Batmobile-ish Lamborghini Veneno that is not reported here but brought a reported high bid of $4,347,370 and had kids barely old enough to shave fawning over it in the preview), carving […]
Bonhams, Grand Palais, Paris, February 6, 2020
“Those were the days”. Bonhams Paris auction is set in the best location, the Grand Palais which hosted automobile and aviation shows in the early 20th century when Paris was the center of the automotive world. Bonhams brings back relics of the age once again to luxuriate in the ambience of the Grand Palais, accented […]
What Is Going On?
“May you live in an interesting age” is a curse attributed to Chinese sources. These days are an “interesting age.” It was ten days ago that I left for Amelia Island. Things were tentative. COVID-19 was largely confined to China but cases were showing up in northern Italy and Iran. There was some trepidation upon […]
Mecum Auctions, Osceola Heritage Park, Kissimmee, January 3-12, 2020 — Part II: Ford-Watson
This is Part II of Mecum Kissimmee, starting with Fords and ending with Watson (as in legendary Indy mechanic, crew chief and constructor A.J. Watson.) It’s a little shorter than Part I, mostly because it doesn’t have to include all those Camaros and Corvettes. It does, however, include the highlight of the auction calendar’s first […]
Mecum Auctions, Osceola Heritage Park, Kissimmee, January 2-12, 2020
When Mecum set up shop in Kissimmee eleven years ago it was an audacious bet that the team from Marengo, Illinois could – from scratch, without any tradition and a week before the long-established Scottsdale auctions – build a big mainstream collector car auction in the fields of central Florida. And have they ever done […]
Barrett-Jackson, WestWorld, Scottsdale, January 11-20, 2020
There’s a big gorilla in Scottsdale. It’s called Barrett-Jackson. The 2020 total not only was the best of all the Scottsdale auctions, it was the only one that increased from 2019 and it was Barrett-Jackson’s highest total ever. That’s in a year that’s showing modest but consistent declines from 12 months ago. Is there something […]
Leake Auctions, Salt River Fields, Scottsdale, January 16-19, 2020
Leake Auctions, claiming to be the oldest established collector car auction in the U.S., arrived in Scottsdale in 2020 after years in Oklahoma and Texas. But this is not the old Leake Auctions led by Richard and Nancy Sevenoaks. This is the new Leake Auctions led by Gary and Muffy Bennett and backed by the […]
RM Sotheby’s, Arizona Biltmore, January 17, 2020
RM Sotheby’s experienced the same paradigm shift as most of the other Arizona auctions, a shortage of expensive cars and a general shift to more accessible consignments. The median transaction was the lowest since 2011; the average sale was the lowest since 2012 which also marked the last time RM had a total sale this […]
Gooding & Company, Fashion Square, Scottsdale, January 17-18, 2020
Gooding & Company had the top sale of the Arizona auction week, Ferrari F50 sold for $3,222,500. Gooding sold eight lots on hammer bids of $1 million or more and missed on only one 7-figure car. That sounds impressive, but in fact the average and median sale values, not to mention the two-day total of […]