More bargains than emotions in France

Today we find ourselves in France, where two auction houses organised, in the capital, two sales on the same weekend. Artcurial was first, on Saturday the 14th of March, on the Champs-Élysées, offering the collection of Fritz Neuser — a respected cyclist, racing driver, and seller of the very cars he raced, principally Alfa Romeo and Ferrari. A figure well known in Germany, considerably less so in France, which meant there was a small element of uncertainty about how the sale would go. All thirty cars were offered without reserve and achieved exactly what was predicted: estimates of €4,028,000 against actual sales of €4,006,230. The average price settled at €133,541.

Aguttes, the following day, chose instead the Espace Champerret in Levallois-Perret, on the outskirts of Paris — a well-tested venue, and also the house's home base. Here the cars on offer were triple in number (95), but barely one was without reserve, so it comes as no surprise that the sale percentage landed at just under two-thirds of lots sold (63 cars, for a total of 66.32%). Forecasts had predicted €6,637,500, and in the end the total came in slightly above Artcurial's: €4,423,560, with an average price of €70,215 per car sold.