Last week the Mullin Automotive Museum purchased a 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic from Dr. Peter Williamson's estate for between $30M and $40M, making it the most expensive car ever sold.

$40 Million Bugatti: New Most Expensive Car In The World - bugatti type 57sc atlantic - Jalopnik

 

Ahh the original coupe with a "spine". Begs the question: Will ours be worth $40 Mil someday?

 

Maybe if yours is the last running automobile on this planet.

 

Bluecoupe, you win the prize for catching on to the resemblance! Also notice the 3 side streaks.

It's funny how the perceived value of our cars in the general public far exceeds the actual value.

 

Well, the car did actually sell for somewhere in the $30 - $40 million range, but the Mullin Museum was not the buyer. They released an official statement claiming things must have gotten turned around, but that they have been contacted by the purchaser about possibly putting it on display in the new facility in Oxnard, CA later this year.

Still no official word on who did buy though.

 

I'm just SO glad our cars didn't come with "fender skirts".

 

seriously who pays 40 million for a car. I would love to see a cavalier rear ends that thing.

 

Seriously? You think this car will just be driven around on public roads?

People who spend that kind of money on a car are not buying a "car" but rather a work of art. And compared to the price of high end artwork, even the most expensive car in the world (which, um, is this particular Bugatti) is dirt cheap.

Major works of art sell for this kind of money fairly regularly, where as the high end in the collector car world is in the $5 million to $20 million range. Paintings will regularly command 5 times those numbers, and the people who buy them do so either for the pure aesthetic value or as an investment. And they generally prove to be very good investments indeed.

Right now, in the collector car market, old Ferraris and pre war classics like this Bugatti are back at the top of the heap. You think the Barrett-Jackson auctions sell cars for crazy prices? Consider that for the past couple of years during auction week in January in Arizona, when B-J is moving a little over 1,000 vehicles and turning some $60 million in sales over 4 days, Gooding & Company conducts a one day auction (on the Saturday of the same week) and moves barely 100 cars - one tenth the number of cars B-J sells. With total receipts just over $30 million. Yep, half the total dollar volume on one tenth the number of vehicles. Gooding & Co. and RM Auctions sell the real high end stuff to serious collectors. B-J sells the so-so stuff mostly to speculators and a few serious collectors. But as investment material, the cars B-J moves are nothing.

To really put this car into perspective vis a vis the world of high end art & collectibles, in 2007 during the Monterey Weekend (Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, Monterey Historic Sports Car Races, Concorso Italiano, The Quail, etc) there were, as always, a series of collector car auctions. B-J is NOT among those who hold auctions during this week of automotive nirvana, by the way. Anyway, through 9 nights of auctions by the various players in this market, $134,839,073 total sales were generated. You read that right - almost 135 million dollars.

Earlier in that same year Sotheby's New York Contemporary Art Auction brought in $254,870,000 on a Tuesday night! One freakin' night. And not a car to be found on the auction block. And the very next night Christie's New York art sale brought in $384,654,400. In one night!! That's almost $640 million in two nights - no cars. In that context, which is where this Bugatti sale should be viewed, $40,000,000 for an old French car isn't as crazy as it first sounded. And at least you could drive the Bugatti if you wanted to.

(Source for auction info: Sports Car Market Magazine, November 2007)

You want to talk crazy, check out the most expensive sculptures ever sold: World’s Top Five Most Expensive Sculptures and the most expensive paintings ever sold: Most Expensive Paintings, top 10 most expensive paintings ever sold