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Photographer: © 2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby's © 2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby & # 39; s
Photographer: © 2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby's © 2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby & # 39; s
After the biggest mistake in recent auction history, the The Nazi car manufactured by Ferdinand Porsche was not sold.
At the popular Saturday night auction in downtown Monterey, California, RM Sotheby's auctioneers The first sale turned off the lights and showed a promotional video they had prepared before the long-awaited sale of the Type 64 from 1939. The controversial silver coupe was expected to sell for up to $ 20 million. dollars before a huge mistake, or a clumsy attempt at light joke, by the auction house upset the crowded room.
"This is the only surviving example piloted personally by Ferdinand Porsche," said the host of the evening, then announced that the auction would be open to "30 million dollars", a figure on the front of the press. Half of the crowd laughed; the other half applauded. After a quick auction going up to "70 million," the crowd standing up, the iPhone raised and cheered, the auctioneer announced that he meant "13 million dollars," then "$ 17 million", rather than 30 and 70. The media screen was quickly changed to reflect the $ 17 million.
Boos and cries and cries followed. People are out.
"What a joke," said Johnny Shaughnessy, a collector from Southern California, who was in the room when this happened. "They just lost so much credibility. My dad could have bought this car there is $ 5 million. It has been going for years and nobody wants it.
Collectors' comments among the crowd right after the possible mistake or the fictional joke included "What a scam," "They cut their throats" and "It worked for Banksy; it did not work for RM ", referring to Sotheby's sale in 2018 which saw a Banksy artwork shred into a surprise waterfall just after its sale.
John Bothwell, director of Pur Sang Bugattis, described it as "massive madness". Two RM Sotheby's representatives were not available to comment after the sale; a third sailed away without a word when asked to make a statement about the car. In an e-mail response to a request for comments from Bloomberg News, a spokeswoman said that "despite the interest of savvy collectors, we could not find a common ground between the seller and the seller." "Buyer at night".
The auction for Type 64 was completed in a few minutes, after no bid greater than $ 17 million appeared in the room.
"When opening bids on Type 64, increments were heard in error and displayed on the screen, which caused unfortunate confusion in the room," the spokesman said. RM Sotheby's, without responding to the request for names of auctioneers. "The car has reached a high bid of $ 17 million."
It's not enough money. The car is on RM Sotheby's online auction list under the title "Still for Sale".
The Type 64 was far from the only brutal sale of a weekend when the gross totals up to Friday were down about 25%, or about $ 50 million, compared to 2018, according to Hagerty. Overall, while there were 16 more cars offered for the first two days of the auction in 2019, nearly 30 fewer cars were sold. The average selling price was $ 75,000 lower than last year. RM Sotheby's insiders have called the current market a "bloodbath".
The first seller on Friday, a McLaren F1 supposed to sell for $ 23 million, took a little over $ 19 million at the RM Sotheby's auction that night.
This type 64 was originally painted black and, at one point, in turquoise, before regaining its current silver patina.
Photographer: Jack Schroeder 2019 Courtesy of / 2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby & # 39; s
But the Type 64 was the whitest of the lot, with famous collectors and Porsche bigwigs discussing its veracity in a low voice for weeks before the sale. Rather than his UFO look or astronomical price, it's the name of the car that caused all the commotion.
Some observers, guided by the terminology appearing in RM Sotheby's own auction catalog, described the silver coupe as a real Porsche. After all, it was manufactured by Ferdinand Porsche himself; he even added his name at the beginning about a decade after he did. And with its round headlights and small bonnet and rounded roofline, it clearly bears the traces of ancient design philosophies that have infiltrated into the car that is widely accepted to be the first Porsche, the 1948 356 Gmünd Cup, and later Porsche like the 911 and the Cayman.
The Type 64 was designed to compete in a Berlin-Rome race to celebrate the Italian-German alliance during the Second World War.
Photographer: Jack Schroeder 2019 Courtesy of / 2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby & # 39; s
Others, including the man who had inspected the car on behalf of RM Sotheby's before its sale, took note that the Type 64 was technically not a "Porsche" ". Its engine and most of its parts were supplied by Volkswagen, with components from Fiat and other niche suppliers of the time. Ferdinand Porsche still built cars for almost everyone in Germany, including Daimler and Auto Union. Porsche AG was even founded only in 1948 – 10 years after the construction of this car – so it is certainly not accurate to call it a real Porsche, he continues.
Porsche AG and the Porsche Museum took care to distance themselves from the sale, refusing to comment for a week Bloomberg on its nomenclature and its relative importance for the history of the Porsche company. What remains to be seen is what will happen to the car next and how will RM Sotheby's recover from the debacle.
Three 64-type cars were planned for construction, but only two were built.
Photographer: Jack Schroeder 2019 Courtesy of / 2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby & # 39; s
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