The Ultimate Barn Find: Bugatti Type 57S Atalante

[Douglas]

I'm sure many of you saw this article a couple months ago, but I thought it was worth sharing for those who missed it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1103849/The-eccentric-uncle-left-garage--containing-6m-Bugatti-supercar.html

Long story short: wealthy, eccentric uncle dies and leaves a very special Bugatti that his heirs didn't know existed.

I think it ended up going for about half of what the initial estimates projected, but it was still a princely sum.

[Peter van Es]

It was sold for $4.4M only...

Peter

[JamesL]

Not quite a barn find in as much as the Bugatti afficianados knew exactly what it was, where it was, who owned it and the condition it was in. He'd had numerous offers to sell over many years prior to his death and i understand that the eventual auction house were sworn to secrecy about it.

The heirs knew of an old car, but not what and it's potential value. Nice inheritance, nevertheless

[Douglas]

Not quite a barn find in as much as...

James,

That's debatable. The heirs didn't know, so to them it was exactly a "find" (sans barn).

I would also argue that many of the so-called barn finds out there are actually known to exist and may have even received offers over the years. We can't assume that every barn find was unknown and purchased by the first person who saw it and made an offer.

In any event, the status of "ultimate barn find" for this particular Bugatti is all over the Web, so regardless, the name has stuck!

Related thought: Is debating the proper application of this terminology considered "psychco-semantic"?  :-)

[georgem]

no James its not psycho semantic, its just plain boring.