Stop press live from Paris: Artcurial F50 sells for €4.068m

By Steve Wakefield

18th March 2022

With the Three Musketeers – Maître Hervé Poulain, Matthieu Lamoure and Pierre Novikov – taking well-earned glasses of champagne, we can report that the ultra-low-mileage, one-owner Ferrari F50 was the highlight of the first day of Artcurial’s Rétromobile auction.

The 1996 Ferrari sold over top estimate for €4,068,000 all-in. That’s approximately $4.5m on the night and, due to the car having covered just 1,318km from new and its Monaco registration, depending on its final country of destination, to that figure could well be added VAT. Plus, the yin to the yang of low mileage is recommissioning cost: the service book had never been stamped and it was liable for new bag tanks and the multitude of other regular maintenance tasks not carried out in 26 years. Big money.

The car’s low mileage attracted attention across the globe and at one point eight telephone bidders were on it, plus bids coming from the room. It was joined by several other one-owner Ferrari hypercars, all liable to the same tax and recommissioning issues as the leading F50. All prices gross:

1989 Ferrari F40, 13,284km, €2,052,000
2003 Ferrari Enzo, 4,760km, €2,780,000
2010 Ferrari 599 GTO, 3,390km, €754,000
2013 Ferrari LaFerrari, 952km, €2,651,200

The one-of-349 F50’s eventual price was only a shade under the €4,292,000 achieved by the ex-works Porsche 907, a marque of the moment and a model of which only a handful were built. Perhaps the 907 would have done better in Monterey; it and the non-selling ex-Georg Loos 1974 Porsche 911 RSR, a factory car in all but name, were fine examples. The latter really needed its familiar red/yellow GELO/Polifac livery to sell well – it looked uninspiring in plain red amongst a sea of lesser lots.

Working on strictly provisional figures, we estimate today’s gross to exceed €33m, with eight out of 10 cars finding new homes. Nearly 15% beat upper estimate.

Other significant results on the day (gross):

1965 Alfa Romeo TZ, not sold
1961 Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ Coda Tonda, sold for €406k
1967 Ferrari 330 GTC, sold for €562,500
1963 Aston Martin DB5 LHD, sold for €812,000
1976 Ferrari 308 GTB Vetroresina, sold for €121,800
1961 Aston Martin DB4, sold for €614,800
1963 Osca 1600 GT Berlinetta Zagato, sold for €348,000
1959 AC Ace (V8 conversion), sold for €168,200
1963 Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ Coda Tronca, not sold
1963 Ferrari 250 GTE Series 2, sold for €266,800
1972 Maserati Ghibli 4.9 SS, sold for €179,800