Museum cars bomb at Goodwood Members’ Meeting sale
CHASING CARS
Russ Smith’s market news
The now-regular Bonhams auction held at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting was largely a success, and what did sell was mainly to expectations. However, 29 of the 105 cars on offer had been shipped over from the Key Museum in Izmir, Turkey. Bidders seemed wary of them – not helped by the additional 5% of import tax to pay on each lot if it stayed in the UK – and only 13 of those cars sold. That dragged the overall sale rate down to 62.9%, which is a little disappointing.
It did throw up one particular bargain though, in the Aston-Martin DB4 pictured. That was let go for £210,250 against an estimate of £250-350k.
The money must have been needed because that’s less than current guide prices for a rough example, and this car had been restored by the museum in recent years. What that does is reveal how important history and provenance is for Aston buyers. Few had even heard of the museum before this sale, and its proficiency with Astons was an unknown quantity. Add the fact that this car had almost zero history and the answer is clear. But it was probably worth a punt at that price.
‘The museum’s proficiency with Astons were an unknown quantity’
DB4 made rough/project money, but the restorer was an unknown quantity.
