A close‑up look at the multi‑million pound Artcurial Retromobile sale

It’s a collection of cars which brings the crowds flocking over. Guarded not by a separate room or by being cut off from the riff-raff outside, but merely by small, lower than knee-high white picket fences. This allows everyone at the show a glimpse of the delights on offer to those lucky few who might afford to make a purchase.

Beyond those white fences is an enjoyable array of motoring stars that we’ll bring you more info on in later articles, but which we hope to demonstrate inside this gallery.

The star of the show is probably a magnificent Ferrari 275 GTB, which takes pride of place in the very centre of the display, raised above the ground on a pure white plinth. But delve deeper and you’ll find some true rarities. There’s a lineage of V12 Lamborghinis – from Countach, through Diablo to Murcialago. In a corner you’ll find one of the (not many) Ferrari 599’s built with a manual gearbox. 

In a rather cuter corner, just out of sight of the crowds, you’ll find some miniatures, including a ‘Dads and Lads’ set of Countaches (that is a kiddies one next to the real thing), while hiding at the back are two lovely, and rather rare, racing cars – an ex-Le Mans Jaguar XJ220 and a Rondeau in fabulous Belga livery.

The sale takes place this weekend, and is something of a denouement for the whole Retromobile week. This show is all about sales, pretty much every stand here will sell you something, from the cheapest of second hand books to the rarest of Ferraris, but none will announce so publicly the results, or allow us that delightful glimpse into a world of car ownership to which most of us can only aspire.

Photogaphy by Ben Miles.