Market Intelligence
Artcurial at Rétromobile: black and white
At Rétromobile, Artcurial focused heavily on a single asset, the 1964 Ferrari 250 LM, which they placed an astronomical €25m valuation on. The market disagreed, with only one offer at €20m, resulting in the car not being sold. This all-in approach ruined Artcurial's hopes of a spectacular sale, with the auction concluding at €34.6m ($36.9m), less than last year's total despite there being 25% more cars on offer. The mantle of the most expensive car sold went to a 1951 Ferrari 340 America Barchetta with Touring bodywork, which sold for €5.7m ($6.1m).
Auction houses would do well to take advice from financial advisors who recommend not focusing your investments on one potential asset, but rather to “spread the risk” over multiple revenue streams.
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Artcurial, at Rétromobile, did exactly the opposite: an all-in on the 1964 Ferrari 250 LM that I had valued between €10m and €15m, but the experts of the auction house placed at €25m, a figure from another planet entirely. The car wasn’t bad either but it had no racing pedigree or any exceptional qualities to justify this monstrous estimate. The market, which in the end is always right, thought the same. There was only one offer at €20,000,000 ($21,357,800) and the lot went back to where it came from.
