On May 11, the American House RM Auctions held an auction “taking advantage” of the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco that took place that same weekend.
The chosen place was the glamorous “Le Sporting” in Monaco, a spacious party room with unbeatable views of the sea that RM filled with automotive jewels, as we are used to.
The place and date chosen were undoubtedly the ideal place to place large competition pieces ... or almost anything, since with the wealthy Monegasque public anything is possible. Thus, a modest Fiat 500 was awarded for no less than 30.800 euros (no matter how much it was a first series from 1957).
For the rest, of the 89 lots that passed "under hammer" the vast majority were sports cars from the 50s, 60s and 70s, apart from a batch of automobilia, a Vespa and the 1958 Riva boat that Rainier of Monaco and his wife Grace Kelly premiered and that sold for 403.200 euros.
As a noteworthy issue is the fact that among all the cars present there were only two prior to World War II; Specifically, a great Bugatti 35B from 1926 and a Jaguar SS100 from 1936.
For a change - understand the sarcasm- the three highest prices were for three Ferraris. The largest amount was achieved by a 275 1966 GTB / C bodied by Scaglietti; this unit, chassis 09067, is the ninth of the 12 built and as auction houses often say “it is probably the best preserved of all of them”. We do not know if it will be true or not, but the fact is that it was awarded at 5.712.000 euros.
The second in this ranking of stratospheric prices was the 250 Ferrari 1959 GT Pininfarina Series I Cabriolet, with 4.704.000 euros. The third, a 330 1967 GTS of which only 90 units were built and which changed ownership for 2.128.000 euros.
1- Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina, one of the usual suspects
2- Brabham-Repco BT20, world champion in 1967
Competition environment
It was also surprising the number of pure competition vehicles for sale in this auction ... or not, since it coincided with a historic GP. Even so, it is not normal to see cars in this type of event, and here no less than 6 went on sale. The most remarkable It was the Brabham-Repco BT20 Formula One from 1966, especially since this same vehicle was the winner of the 1967 Monaco GP at the controls of Denny Hulme, who would later win the world championship that same season.
With this pedigree, it is not surprising its high sale price: 1.092.000 euros, especially striking if one takes into account that its estimated maximum price in the catalog was around 720.000.
In total, 93% of the lots presented were sold, obtaining RM nothing more and nothing less than 41.335.430 million euros at the end of the day. And it is that in Monaco everything is sold, and if not that they ask the horrible Mercedes 300 SL from 1954 devoid of its original and updated mechanics with air conditioning and modern tires among other aberrations ... and that still was awarded for 812.000 euros !
* If you want more information about lots and award prices, click here.