Market Intelligence
Italians up and down at the Pebble Beach auctions
The article discusses the recent Pebble Beach auctions and analyzes the results of the sales of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati cars. The author notes a decline in demand for historic Ferraris and speculates that the decreasing number of collectors who remember the 1950s, coupled with the high prices, may be the cause. However, the more recent models, such as the Testarossa from 1988 and the LaFerrari, did well and often set new records. The article also includes details of the prices achieved for several cars sold at the auction.
That very particular Italian charm of knowing how to combine art and technique, is perhaps best expressed in the automobile. For this reason, the first instalment of our detailed analyses of the results of the recent Pebble Beach auctions is dedicated to Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo and Maserati.
Let’s begin from the car all eyes were focused on: the 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider, ex-factory then ex-Carroll Shelby. The estimate of $25m-$30m was gigantic and would have made it the eighth most expensive car ever sold at an auction (six of which are by Ferrari), but it also accounted for 10% of the total value of the cars offered by RM. The good news is that it was sold, the slightly less good news is that it stopped at $22,005,000, 12% below its minimum estimate. Of course, with this figure it still remains within the top 10 but confirms what I indicated last year about a decline in demand for historic Ferraris. In my opinion there is more than one reason behind this trend: the decreasing number of memories from those years. Our studies have confirmed a correlation between the age of the collector and the car chosen because he or she remembers them, and the 1950s are long gone now. In addition, the very high prices today do not guarantee they will move upwards tomorrow, which instead, as we will see shortly, happens for the most recent Ferraris.
<font size="3">1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider by Scaglietti sold for $22,005,000 (€21,988,600)</font>
