"For three thrilling minutes the prices were climbing without limits, bidders in the room competed against bidders on the telephone, then the gavel went down: Last Saturday, at a spectacular price of 110.000 Euro (including premium: 127,600 Euro), auctioneer Tobias Friedrich was able to knock down a rare Ferrari brochure from early days. With a starting bid of 25,000 euros, the entry bid was already at a high level. The buyer, a collector from the USA, wants to stay anonymous.
"This automobile brochure is by far the most expensive that has ever been auctioned," says Automobilia expert and auctioneer Tobias Friedrich of Ni-Cola Classics about the achieved price: “This world record sets a new benchmark". The auction house Ni-Cola Classics is specialized in Automobilia.
The English brochure (lot 799) was published in 1954 and only comprises four pages. It features the Ferrari 250 Europa, one of the early successful models of the legendary sports car brand from Modena. Today Automobilia experts are aware of only three versions of these brochures. "It is said that Enzo Ferrari had stomped down the edition because he didn't like the brochures," explains Tobias Friedrich. At that time only a few copies had already been sent to interested parties - the reason for their rarity today.
Last time a brochure from this series appeared was in 2007 at a Ferrari specialised auction in Gstaad. At that time, the highest bid was 17,000 Euros, which was considered impressive. In the past 12 years, the value has increased by 650 percent."
I am very happy to recommend Ni-Cola Classics as I've been subscribed to them for years. They do obtain a lot of Ferrari and Porsche literature as well as other European marques. Check them out online and sign up for their newsletter here: https://auction.nicola-ac.de/
