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The French Connection XI – Artcurial’s November Paris sale

The French Connection XI – Artcurial’s November Paris sale 8th November 2017

Artcurial’s ‘Automobiles sur les Champs’ auction is in its eleventh year. Whatever the French expression is for “Je ne sais quoi”, Hervé Poulain’s team certainly has it...

The sale grossed €5.6m and, considered against a backdrop of uncertain mainland European sales, it was an undoubted success. Forty per cent of the catalogue at No Reserve certainly helped and some entries such as the €792.3k Bentley R-Type Continental (above) were certainly well bought.

At a glance:

* Gross: €5,602,700
* Percentage sold by number: 73%
* Top-selling car: 1925 Bugatti Type 35, €1,438,880 gross, €1,220,000 hammer (est. €1m to €1.35m)

With premium, the Bentley works out at around the $925k mark. You have to go back to 2011 to find a left-hand-drive R-Type sold at auction at this level. Artcurial's was an automatic (the first R-Type Conti so-equipped, but now converted out-of-period to manual) 4.5-litre, and non-original colour inside and out, but had spats and seats listed as ‘special’, if not categorically the oh-so-desirable buckets. It will take a considerable investment to return ‘BC42LC’ to its as-delivered specification of cream coachwork with cream crocodile leather seats and bespoke work to the rear passenger compartment. If done properly, though, the concours field awaits. RM sold a well-restored LHD automatic 4.5 for $1.88m in August 2016, so there’s potential there.

The Bugatti Type 35 was probably on the money at €1.44m gross – only the truly exceptional cars with cast-iron histories fetch top prices today. We like Lancia Flaminia Zagatos and €214,600 for the 1965 Super Sport was fair all round.

Neither of the sporty 964/993 RS Porsches sold, nor did any of the ‘boho-chic’ chrome-bumper cars. Perhaps the shine is finally coming off this market, certainly for unloved examples requiring what buyers now realise are very expensive restorations.

Speaking of beards, King Edward VII was well known for his, and it was cars from the Edwardian era and earlier that did do well in Paris (and at Bonhams' Brighton Run sale the same weekend). Love them or hate them, one man’s Comp’ ‘Daytona’ is another’s 1896 Peugeot Vis-à-vis 3.3/4 HP. Estimated at €60k to €80k, Artcurial’s example was hammered at €175,000. That’s €203,000 with premium.

As the rostrum was being cleared immediately post-event, Mathieu Lamoure broke into song: “Everybody loves somebody, sometime…” He had a point.

Artcurial in Paris, 5 November 2017

Total gross cars: €5,602,700
Number of cars not sold: 21
Number of cars withdrawn: 1
Total number of cars: 78
Number sold: 57
Percentage cars sold by number: 73%
Percentage by value average low/high estimate: 61%
Percentage of cars sold below low estimate: 53%
Percentage of cars sold not met avge of estimates: 79%
Percentage of cars sold met/exceeded top estimate: 11%
Average year of cars offered: 1970
Average price of cars sold: €98,293
Percentage of cars offered at No Reserve: 40%

Photo by Nicolas Zwickel for Artcurial