Bonhams at Goodwood: The Weight of History

Bonhams' attempt to reverse the downward trend at the annual auction held at the Goodwood Revival did not have the desired result: on 13 September, compared to £5,818,297 last year, turnover fell to £4,886,234. Even considering that the value offered was lower than in 2024, the initial approach of offering fewer cars (71 compared to 89) to maintain high quality did not work. The estimated value of £9,066,000 was more or less consistent, in relation to the cars offered, with the £12,209,000 in 2024, and the average value per car of £127,000 instead of £137,000 could have had a strategic function.
But the market did not respond: only 39 cars were sold, equal to 54.93%, with a hammer price of £4,886,234, which was also down. Just to give an idea of the scale, the Iconic auction we talked about last week raised £8.4 million, and we are talking about an average auction.

Let's try to understand what happened, starting with the top lot, a 1960/2000 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Sanction III. To understand what this is, let's analyse the acronym. Here we need to give two explanations: the first is the meaning of “Sanction III” and the other is the year, or rather, the years. At the end of the 1980s, Aston and Zagato reintroduced the famous DB4 Zagato in a version based on the original mechanics and chassis, revised in every detail by RS Williams and bodied, as originally, by Zagato. Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Sanction II was the official name. Four examples were built. At the end of the 1990s, RS Williams learned that Zagato still had two complete bodies that it had not used on the Sanction II and therefore asked Aston Martin for permission to create the Sanction III. This explains the name and the strange age: using a 1960 DB4, it was reborn as a Zagato in 2000 with all the procedures respected. This example remained in the hands of the seller who brought it to auction for 25 years and covered 45,000 miles, thanks in part to the modified 4.2-litre engine requested at the time of order. The estimate of £700,000-1,000,000 may seem high, but in truth it is not. In fact, it sold for £1,079,000.