Artcurial’s July 2020 Monaco sale

With only slightly more than half its catalogue finding new owners, luck wasn’t running the Parisian firm’s way earlier this week, when it held a 90-car auction at the Hôtel Hermitage in Monte Carlo.

The sale was just one part of Artcurial’s week-long residency in the Principality that generated some €14m and included watches, jewellery and Hermès handbags. At €65k, the 2003 Birkin bag in Blue Jean crocodile sold at the latter would have come equal 19th highest by value in the motor car auction on 21 July.

As it was, top-selling car was the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’ for €1,380,000, including Artcurial’s always-heavy premium, dead on lower estimate. That’s around $1.6m, probably the correct price for an original Rudge wheels and tuned NSL engine car, though discounted a little for its as-delivered spec of Fire Engine Red.

Eagle-eyed subscribers will note the cheesy whitewall tyres reversed on this €1m+ car, when a set of as-near-correct-as-possible new 185 R15 Pirelli Cinturato CA67s can be bought from Longstone tyres for £1,078.80 incl. VAT. From the edgy East End of London to the fashionable French Riviera, car dealers, eh?

At a glance:

* Gross (motor cars): €6,978,742
* Percentage sold by number: 52%
* Top-selling car: 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’ €1,380,000 gross, €1,200,000 net (est. €1.2m to €1.4m)
* Well sold? In a tough market, they got the Gullwing and 300 SL Roadster away
* Well bought? Given the low sell-through, hard to say
* One to take away? €10,440 bought a great fun car in the 1971 Autobianchi Bianchina Giardiniera 500. A long way to drive to the Eurotunnel in Calais, though…

So both 300 SLs sold, and they were joined by the high-ish (30,660km) mileage 1990 Ferrari F40 with reversible modifications that went for €933,800, hammered sold €100k below low estimate. The non-selling raft of new Ferraris begs the question, "Why not buy at a dealer?"

The Miura was another casualty. Already offered by a German dealer without success, in a brisk market for the model (four have sold at auction this year), Artcurial’s red car failed where other cars, often with declared non-matching engines or body stampings, have succeeded.

Still, Canadian giant RM fared only a little better online, holding a sale the same week. In today’s uncertain times, the jury is still out on the way forward, though a high-quality catalogue certainly helps.

Artcurial at the Hôtel Hermitage, Monte Carlo, 21 July 2020 – results

Gross: €6,978,742
Number of cars not sold: 43
Number of cars withdrawn: 0
Total number of cars: 90
Number sold: 47
Percentage cars sold by number: 52%
Percentage by value average low/high estimate: 29%
Percentage of cars sold below low estimate: 66%
Percentage of cars sold not met avge of estimates: 96%
Percentage of cars sold met/exceeded top estimate: 0%
Average year of cars offered: 1978
Average price of cars sold: €148,484
Percentage of cars offered at No Reserve: 27%

Photo by Artcurial