French businessman Roger Baillon bought over a hundred classic and old cars during the 1950s thought the 1970s, with plans to restore them and open a museum. A business setback in the seventies dashed those hopes, and fifty had to be sold then. The rest were stashed in make-shift shelters and barns on his rural property. He died about ten years ago, and his son died last year. His two grandsons, who had no idea of the extent of the collection, are going to auction them off, hopefully bringing them close to $20 million. Thanks, Grandpa!
In this shot, we see a Facel-Vega Excellence four door hardtop next to a Talbot-Lago T26 once owned by Egyptian King Farouk.
These two (rightfully) rated an actual garage. They will undoubtedly be among the highest priced cars of the bunch, given the prices of vintage Ferraris and Maseratis these days. That’s a 250 GT SWB California Spider on the left, expected to fetch up to $14 million alone. The Maserati is an A6G 2000 Gran Sport Frua; Only three were ever made, making it worth over a million.
Here it is, pulled out for a better look. I doubt the old trucks will get saved.
This one wasn’t identified, but it’s almost certainly one of a number of Delahays or Delages. Anybod certain?
This once-splendid Talbot-Lago suffered an indignity to its rear end long ago which will undoubtedly get finally fixed.
This Panhard Dynamic shows how most of the cars have been stored under leaky corrugated metal sheds.
The ones on the outside ends are being reclaimed by ivy. Nasty stuff.
Some of the cars are more prosaic, like this early Renault Dauphine.
There’s a video and a full list of all the cars here at the dailymail.uk.
The cars are (were) beautiful in their own right, but the photography is also excellent… “poignant” is the word that comes to mind.
Wow, imagine having the wherewithal to move 100 cars from one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other?
Umm…these are in France; always were. Did I suggest otherwise?
I saw this and thought “whose grandpa just had a Facel sitting in a shed?!” Then I read more closely…oh, a French grandpa, of course.
My French grandpa had no Facel in his garage, just a Citroen BX… Gee, had I kept it then, I could sell it in the Netherlands today 🙂
I often try to tell folks there’s loads of oldies out there , just wait until they’re found .
Too bad these sat so long .
-Nate
I’ve wanted a 250 GT California ever since I saw one in “Munsters Go Home.” Unfortunately, everyone else figured out how desirable they were and they stopped selling for used car prices before I graduated from high school.
I’m not sure what the big coupe is in the photo under the California and the trucks, but I believe the body is by Saoutchik.
I remember looking through the classifieds in Road and Track when I was in college (mid-70s), seeing various Ferraris going for under $10K, and thinking, “Damn! I wish I could put together that kind of cash now.” Of course, by the time I started making money (late 70s), they were up over $100K, and I still couldn’t afford them (sigh).
Can you believe all those piled up magazines on top of that 14 million Ferrari?
Exactly what I was thinking. Thankfully, seeing it out of the shed, it looks like it wasn’t too badly damaged by the load…but even 30+ years ago one would have thought it obvious that it was one of the best cars in the whole collection!
‘Where to put those? Oh just throw them on that aluminum body Ferrari over there”…
LOL!
Usually the greedy heir is an unpleasant figure. In this case it’s too bad the heirs weren’t a little MORE greedy, or at least a little more curious. Paying a carpenter to build a better shed would have been an excellent investment toward their own future.
I wonder how it was decided that the Ferrari should be the beast of burden instead of the Maserati.
What are the big trucks behind the Ferrari? This looks like a long neglected toy box put together many years ago by some wealthy eccentric.
Two German Büssings and a French Berliet.
I’ll quietly haul the Facel-Vega away while y’all are distracted by watching the bidding wars for the Ferrari and Maserati.
I can see it now….”The Auction of the Century!”
Though, lots of the cars look very……damp…….
You can put a safe bet on the luxury cars all being restored, It all makes sense financially.
Not if I get to it first! Seriously, one of my favorite cars period.
If there are any Mark III’s in the collection, I suspect I know who it belonged to…..
I think I know what happened to the Talbot!
I remember this from the last time they sold some cars, in the 70’s perhaps? At least, I think it has to be the one. Or is there another? I read about it in an article somewhere. For car collectors, it’s probably “the” most famous hidden treasure ever found, the myths surrounding the place is, well, mythological. I saw a photo of a 250 GT swb with a tree growing through its trunk. People pulling their hairs in frustration of not being able to save some of them. The place has always been hidden in mystery, and serious collectors has for decades tried to buy them off that stubborn old farmer. He refused all offers. Someone said something about him wanting to preserve the place as a sort of ready made exhibition of the 20th century, it was supposed to just rot away. Or something like that. As said, it is myths galore. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the most famous and mythological collections of them all. I mean, the Schlumpfs couldn’t hide their love of Bugattis forever. This guy willingly just let the time take its toll on them…
A6G for me. That unidentified coupe after the 250 SWB is fantastic.
The hoard on the Ferrari is profoundly distressing. I’ve never stored junk on my cars. If I was in that family I would have done everything in power, even training myself, to keep her in running condition. Plus my paternal role models have firmly ingrained into me that machinery and tools are to be cared for and respected. I can’t mow my lawn due to a back fracture, but my Honda mower gets started monthly, fuel stabilizer and a yearly oil change, for the past four years. Starts on the first pull. I thought I would be mowing again, but my gardner is getting it for Christmas. It needs to be used, and he respects his equipment.
I do judge people who don’t take care of their loved ones, pets, or machinery. Hoarding resources and historical artifacts while letting them decay is morally wrong.
Rant over 🙂
Hideous, but somehow I can’t look away.
Were I not into cars so much, the Ferrari and Maser would be the least interesting of the lot because of their relative lack of deterioration. There is so much beauty in the quiet process of natural reclamation. I hope the photographer got the makings of a show out of this even though I ache for the cars. Like Connie Corleone, who needs comfort when Carlo is murdered, and swings wildly between acceptance and revulsion towards Michael’s embrace, I am torn.
But, the cars win.
I am no stranger to the occasional purchase bought by stretching finances to the point where their was little left for maintenance. Luckily for the rest of the cars out there, I’m not rich.
Whilst these cars are incredibly rare and some even rarer they will cost many, many hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore.
Some close to beyond restoration.
Things get away and out of control.
Sigh….we see this “must-keep-I’ll-get-around-to-restoring-it-someday” madness overtake people again and again. My personal local tragedy was a 60’s Corvette Stingray with a car cover over it, parked on the dirt beside a farm house that I drove by every day on my way to work…..for 10 years. Just sat there, summer and winter, never moving, tires flat in the mud.
I know that thing just rotted away under that cover till nothing was left but the fiberglass body, the glass, and the VIN.
In this case, almost all the value of the collection is now down to perhaps four or five cars, and most of that is in the garaged Ferrari and Maserati. The Bugatti is probably worth the cost of restoration, and perhaps a few others are as well. The rest are….well….
It’s pointless to wish for something after the fact, but imagine if he had sold 20 more cars and used that money for better garaging. I guess I’m just in a gloomy mood because my 71 Alfa Spider in the garage wants me to have some body work done for her….
If you wander around the Artcurial website long enough you’ll find the “Delahaye or Delage” identified as a Talbot Lago T26 Record coupé Saoutchik. To my California eye just restoring it to stock, without modifying anything, would make the greatest lowrider ever.
Nice spotting. Cheers
Be still, my beating heart…..
Simply amazing. The photography is excellent too…
While on the one hand it’s tragic that the cars were allowed to decline to such a point, on the other hand, it makes for some hauntingly beautiful visuals.
I love barn finds, despite the sickening, wasted value of the machinery. When I was a kid I rode my bike past an old garage at the other end of my little cowtown. I saw the distinct fins of a ’49 Cadillac peeking out of one of the bays. I dismounted and explored for 30 minutes (the garage was quite away from the house and down a hill. There was an old dusty ’50-’51 Caddy in there too. With this being ’72, they were barely 20 years old, but finding them like that made an impression.
I want to say the cars disappeared and the garage was torn down sometime in the mid-80s…
Oh yeah ! .
I grew up in the 1960’s and saw so many classic relics from the 20’s . 30’s , 40’s & 50’s just rotting away in mud floored sheds , barns and garages _everywhere_ ~ in town and out in the country .
When I moved Way Out West , I found even more , incredibly few were rusty .
In the early 1970’s I was out poking ’round El Sereno (at that time the least ‘ serene ‘ part of Los Angeles) and happened across a Gull Wing Mercedes in a little clapboard garage that had been left untouched after they tore down the ancient house next to it .
I’d go up there and drive by , look at it every year or so well into the 1990’s before it and the garage vanished .
Pulling that 1952 Standard VW Beetle out from the brambles next to an old Garage in Monrovia , those are the jobs I live for , the Beetle was heavily re furbished and returned to daily service .
So many barns yet un discovered .
-Nate
Your grandpa seems to have fond of cars. Good collection I would raise my money by $1million to have those. The old mustang if repaired can work as good vintage collections. Although they seemed to be pretty old.