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The 2025 Paris auctions: what to expect

The 2025 Paris auctions: what to expect 3rd February 2025

It’s the start of the European motoring season and THE show of its kind, more cultural and upmarket than others: Rétromobile is one of the few that also attracts some of the big American collectors. “Honey, how about a weekend in Paris?” is more likely to succeed than substituting it for “Essen”. The auctions which are now an important component of the week have become an early market sentiment barometer on this side of the Atlantic.
 
Results in Arizona a couple of weeks ago were respectable. This week three big auction houses will try to shift 334 cars in Paris. Let’s look more closely and compare to 2024.
 
At a glance: 2025 Artcurial, Bonhams and RM Sotheby’s Paris auctions
 
Total average of estimates: €160,785,500 (2024, €129,563,500)
Average mid-estimate price per car offered: €481,394 (2024, €436,241)
Number of cars offered: 334 (2024, 297)
Average year of car offered: 1968 (2024, 1973)
Percentage of cars at No Reserve: 60% (2024, 49%)
2024 gross: €65,399,926 after post-sales
2024 percentage sold by number: 79% after post-sales
 
RM fires the starting gun

 
Finding 300 buyers might sound a challenge, and it’s more than last year, but looking back a decade the figure is lower than average. And that’s with RM’s everything-must-go event on Tuesday with 73 cars all offered without reserve. Pick of the bunch is the LHD 1954 Bentley R Type Continental Fastback (at an optimistic €1.8m to €2.4m), an exceptional example of a once ‘must have’ model fallen from favour, at least for now.
 
Other Tuesday cars such as the LHD 1964 Aston Martin DB5 (matching numbers in Aegean Blue at €580k to €700k), 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Lightweight (been raced a bit, as usual would need carefully checking, €900k to €1.2m) and 1995 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.8 (73k on the odometer, at €220k to €300K) come out of the same Belgian collection, and should be well bid.
 
It’s a ‘throwing the first punch’ tactic which Artcurial tried in Monaco last year. There the cars sold, but often at bargain basement prices that depressed the market for the rest of the weekend. Here the quality is more consistent, and the buyer pool bigger, so expect a less alarming ride.


Car of the Week – the 1965 Le Mans-winning Ferrari 250 LM
 
Ferrari took overall victory at the last two Le Mans 24 Hours but try driving a 499P racer down 17-Mile Drive or to buy the Sunday papers. A Ferrari 250 LM is a landmark as the company’s first mid-engined GT, successor to the 250 GTO and still just about road useable. It’s one of Maranello’s greats, and one of the most beautiful.

All eyes this week will be on the example that won the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours against all odds, driven by Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory. After a long and hard-fought racing career it was retired and sold to the Indianapolis Speedway Museum in 1970, and it’s one of the Crown Jewels they’re selling to focus on Indy cars and endow their foundation.

It’s right-hand drive like most LMs, has its original major mechanical components (rare for an LM), probably a fair amount of its original bodywork, was modified to Drogo long nose in period (acceptable) and isn’t Ferrari Classiche certified, but its identity and history are unquestioned.

Will it sell? Definitely, given the “€25m+” estimate, and we expect many more bidders on this than the Indy Museum’s Mercedes W196 R sold at the weekend. It’s down to recognisability, liquidity, usability and ultimately, the bragging rights that a front-line racing history guarantees. Consider the Le Mans winning Jaguar D-type sold a few years ago ($21m) as an example.
 
RM also has another, slightly more affordable ex-Le Mans Ferrari if the 250 LM is out of reach. We’ve ridden in the ex-Francorchamps 1970 Ferrari 512 M (€9m to €12m) and yes, it’s as exciting as it looks, but the model can’t be used on the road and isn’t competitive in historic racing against less valuable replicas, so is really confined to well-heeled Ferrari collectors for play days and as garage sculpture.

The 1951 212/225 Export by Vignale comes from a sleepy sector in 2025 and would deserve fireworks to sell at €2.5m to €3.5m.
 
RM’s 1975 Lamborghini Countach LP400 ‘Periscopica’ was delivered new to Germany but soon found itself in Florida where the black interior was changed to yellow, retaining the original red exterior. It’s now back in Europe, has done the rounds in Sweden and is currently silver with tobacco. The broad guide price of €750k to €900k is keen but factor in plenty of time and money to get it back to how it should be…
 
RM Sotheby’s 110 cars in total, 4-5 February at Les Salles du Carrousel, 99 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris. See rmsothebys.com


The Brits return to the Grand Palais
 
Bonhams is back at the airy spaces of the dramatic Grand Palais after last year’s event at an alternative due to the Olympics. A Bonhams auction at the historic exhibition hall has always been a landmark event during Rétromobile.
 
This year, the struggling firm has been dealt a bad hand by the organisers so it won’t be able to show all the cars in the venue on auction day (the rest will be in an underground car park across the Seine accessed by those dreaded words “free shuttle bus”). Plus, a mass defection by most of the European team to Hagerty Insurance-owned Broad Arrow on the eve of the event could not have been more unhelpful. We expect the surviving stalwarts to show some Dunkirk spirit, with consulting auctioneer James Knight rallying the troops from the rostrum.
 
A mammoth catalogue of 97 cars is headed by two 1950s Ferrari racers at No Reserve. The 1954-55 Tipo 555 'Super Squalo' single-seater and 1950 166 MM Touring Barchetta carry identical estimates of €4m to €6m. Both are very event-eligible and likely buyers will come from those interested in the Mille Miglia, Le Mans Classic and Monaco Historics; more users than speculators.
 
Other highlights include the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL 'Gullwing' seemingly sold at the Goodwood Festival sale last year but re-offered here at €1.1m to €1.3m, now very openly catalogued as “not the most original” example, with new information revealing much of its body was replaced during a 1980s restoration. One to watch is the 1925 Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix (above), another car at No Reserve from the same ownership as the headlining Ferraris. Type 35 Bugattis are hard to value, but a British expert rates this one, competitively priced at €900k to €1.3m.
 
Bonhams 97 cars in total, 6 February at the Grand Palais, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris. See cars.bonhams.com
 


Local heroes – Artcurial closes the week out
 
With home advantage it’s Matthieu Lamoure and his jolly colleagues who will cajole, beg and serenade those buyers who have so far resisted all other attempts to separate them from their money after four days in Paris.
 
Their event will cover two days with Friday being the main day (112 cars) and includes a No Reserve 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB alloy 3-carb long-nose at a non-committal €2m to €3m. It’s been modified to modern competition spec, a typical Tour Auto entry – an event it has run in six times. Past ownership in the hands of a “Dutch criminal” in the 1970s does not have the appeal of a gentleman driver of the 1960s, and it’s unfashionably bright red with a white stripe. Artcurial’s description notes “matching numbers”. It looks more €2m than €3m, particularly considering Artcurial’s 16%/12% buyer’s premium.
 
Coming from the same André Cadiou collection, the 1972 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 is typical of many today: replacement engine and modified for rallying. One of the first 500 cars is a plus – but who knows how much of the original special parts are on the car – as is series-colour Tangerine (126 cars). This one has been driven little since 2018, when it was last serviced; the estimate of €400k to €500k is probably fair at the bottom end.
 
Artcurial has the other Gullwing during Rétromobile week. The catalogue only records a matching engine and body, and the US-market car is now black/red leather rather than as-delivered silver-grey/blue leatherette with tartan cloth. Possibly a better bet than Bonhams’ one but pricier at €1.3m to €1.6m.
 
Budding dictators will like the 7-seat 600 Pullman ‘Grosser’ Mercedes (ex-Swedish royal family, €150k to €250k). There’s also a run of Bentley Continentals topped by a restored LHD 1965 Bentley S3 Continental Flying Spur for €260k to €320k, perhaps expensive in today’s market but it catalogues well. Former ownership in the hands of connoisseur Hubert Fabri always says something.
 
The home team probably have the most varied catalogue and later on Friday will offer several more 1960s Ferrari V12s topped by a 1966 275 GTB (above), a long-nose steel car out of an Italian restoration by the right people including Bacchelli & Villa in its original Celeste Metallizzato for €2.2m to €2.6m. Note, as a UK lot, if the car enters the EU an additional 5.5% VAT will be added to the hammer price. Expensive, but someone else has done all the work for you.
 
Artcurial 112 cars in total, 7-8 February at Rétromobile, Parc des exposition Paris, Portes de Versailles, 75015 Paris. See artcurial.com
 
Expect K500 to keep you updated on all the action from Paris as it happens.

You can download a complete lotlist of all cars offered by Artcurial, Bonhams and RM Sotheby’s sorted by make and model HERE.

Photos by the auction houses and Shutterstock (top)