A Used-Car Deal for the Ages: 30 Bugattis Sold for a Song Pittsburgh Post Gazette
BUGATTIS are the French low-spirited diamonds of the auto world.
Even as prices for vintage Ferraris made headlines, the Bugatti marque managed to judge the title of most expensive. A 1931 Type 41 Royale that sold at auction in 1987 brought wellnigh $10 million, setting a record that stood for two decades.
This month, a 1936 Type 57SC Atlantic coupe that won the Pebble Seashore Concours d'Élégance in 2003 sold privately for more than $28 million, according to Katie Hellwig, a spokeswoman for Gooding & Pty, the auction house that brokered the sale.
But every now and then there are Bugatti bargains. In January, a 1925 Brescia Type 22 sold to a museum anthology at auction for $345,000. That car was a bit the worse for wear, having spent more than 70 years at the bottom of Lake Maggiore in Switzerland, the effect of a dispute over import duties.
In glaring contrast was a little-known package deal, perhaps the used-car be prepared for of the 20th century. On a March day in 1964, 30 Bugattis were loaded onto railcars in a small Illinois town some 65 miles east of St. Louis. A motivated seller shipped his amassment -- to a buyer in France he had never met -- for just $85,000, including freight. Even when converted to $600,000 in today's dollars, that was a giveaway.
