D.he spiral for ever more expensive luxury goods continues unabated. The latest example: The red Ferrari 250 GTO, built in 1962, changed hands for $ 38 million. Only 39 of the car were built. It was also the last model with a classic 3-liter V12 engine from designer guru Giotto Bizzarrini to leave Ferrari in a dispute in 1962.
It was auctioned by the Bonhams auction house in the luxury hotel “The Quail” on the Monterey Peninsula near San Francisco. The former owner, the Italian Fabrizio Violati, died 4 years ago. He himself bought the car for 2.5 million lire, which at the time was equivalent to around 16,000 marks. Ferraris in particular have recently become more and more valuable. Some models have gained 60 percent in value, as the index of the Historic Automobile Group International shows.
Change for ten years in percent
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Image: FAZ
That shows a trend that exists in the luxury goods market. The most expensive of the expensive products are becoming more and more valuable, while the luxury market is stagnating across the board. For comparison: the most expensive classic car to date, a Ferrari 275 GTB / 4 NART Spider, changed hands last year for $ 27.5 million. But the spiral is not only turning in the classic car market.
That shows the luxury investment index of the consulting agency Knight Frank. This contains nine exquisite luxury goods: in addition to vintage cars, Chinese ceramics, coins, antique furniture, jewelery, wine, postage stamps and watches, as well as art. Each of these categories is based on a single index calculated by market experts. These are summarized by Knight Frank in the luxury investment index and weighted according to the popularity and relative value of the luxury good.
Cars, coins and stamps
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Image: FAZ
The index rose by 179 percent over the past 10 years. Classic cars in the Knight Frank index proved to be particularly valuable – without surprise. Last year alone they increased by 28 percent. The analysts at Knight Frank see the strong demand for cars from Asia as the reason for the sharp increase, where they have an even greater cult factor than in Germany. The financial blog Alphaville asked last year whether there was a threat of a classic car bubble.
Coins also developed excellently with a plus of 227 percent in ten years. There stood out the “blowing hair” silver dollar, which changed hands for $ 10 million. Allegedly, the coin is the first coin ever produced by the American mint, Mint, and thus a real piece of history.
New records are also regularly set on the art market. At a price of 143 million dollars, Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies by Lucian Freud” changed hands at Christie’s auction house in New York in October, making it the most expensive painting by an artist ever sold.
But why was the Ferrari of all things so valuable? It is mainly related to its tragic story. Because the roadworthy racing car was once also used to take part in the successful, traditional “Tour de France Automobile”. But a few weeks later, the two-time winter Olympic champion Henri Oreiller had a fatal accident with the car. The car was badly damaged and repaired in Maranello. In 1965, the previous owner Fabrizio Violati finally bought the car and kept it until his death.