Three Vintage Bugatti Cars Worth $1 Million Discovered In Belgian Barn Find

Barn finds are always exciting. They unravel things from the past that may have held little or no value back then, but then the very same things turn out to be extremely valuable in the modern world. The story of these three Bugattis too goes on similar lines.

A Belgian sculptor named August Thomassen bought three Bugatti cars between the late 1950s and early 1960s. During the period, values for classic cars were hitting rock-bottom and Thomassen bought the cars at a very low price.

He bought them only because he was a huge fan of Bugatti. He loved Bugatti and its cars so much that he sculpted a bust of Bugatti's founder, Ettore Bugatti and this very bust is on display at the National Automobile Museum in France.

The three Bugatti cars in question are a 1932 Type 49 Berline, a 1937 Type 57 Cabriolet, and a 1929 Type 40. All three cars sport custom coachwork, as it was the trend of the wealthy back when the cars were originally produced.

The Type 49 Berline and the Type 57 Cabriolet were used as daily drivers for several years. For the Type 40 though, Thomassen had different plans. After the car met with an accident, he stripped the car and started building its coach himself. As fate would have it though, it would never be finished.

Thomassen and his family were not wealthy and this soon forced him to lock up his prized possessions in his studio barn. He then reinforced the barn's doors with piles of sandbags for added protection so that nobody would steal the Bugattis.

The cars remained locked-up for decades, until thieves broke into the barn last year. August Thomassen is now 95-years-old and therefore unable to drive. His family therefore took the decision to let the cars go, as financial reinforcement is the need of the hour for them. The Bugattis will do just that, for the family.

The three Bugatti classics, along with a 1925 Citroen Torpedo will be auctioned at Artcurial's Retromobile 2019 in Paris on 08 February, 2019 and are together expected to fetch over One Million Dollars. That is a lot of money for four cars that have been lying in a barn for ages, but they aren't any ordinary cars, are they?

Thoughts On Three Bugatti Cars Found In Belgian Barn

Thousands of cars have been found in barns till now, and one would think that all barns in the world have already been searched and no cars are left to be discovered. But barn finds such as this one continue to prove our thoughts wrong. Something valuable could always be lying around if the owner was smart enough to keep them locked up and hidden.

Source: Carscoops