RM Sotheby’s highly anticipated Rudi Klein Collection auction certainly lived up to expectations, achieving a perfect 100 percent sell-through rate as all 566 lots were hammered for $29.6m – nearly doubling the $17m low pre-sale estimate.
Staged in Los Angeles, the unprecedented auction was held across two sales on October 26 and 28. It attracted global attention, because the contents of Rudi Klein’s junkyard had remained largely a mystery since the 1990s.
Bidders from 39 countries and 36 US states competed for cars, motorcycles, parts and automobilia from the collection, with one-third being first-time participants.
Klein first began assembling the vast collection of spare parts and exotic cars during the late 1960s, with highlights including the likes of an alloy-bodied 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing
Klein first began assembling the vast collection of spare parts and exotic cars during the late 1960s, with highlights including the likes of an alloy-bodied 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, a 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500 K and several Lamborghini Miuras.
The aforementioned Mercedes-Benz 300 SL represented the most headline-grabbing lot of the auction, crossing the block for a record-breaking total of $9.35m with fees. It was the 26th of just 29 alloy-bodied examples built, and is believed to have been ordered by famed US Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti.
Chinetti specified the car in black with a windscreen washer and 3.42:1 rear axle. After two decades of ownership, he sold it to Klein for $30,000 during the 1976 Daytona 500. Following its 1977 delivery, the Gullwing remained untouched in the junkyard’s central building. The winning bid of $9.35m makes it the most valuable alloy Gullwing ever sold, smashing its $6m high estimate.
The 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500 K was the second most expensive car, selling for an impressive $4.13m. This incredibly special model was a one-off that was built for Mercedes-Benz racing driver Rudolf Caracciola, who won the European Drivers’ Championship – the precursor to Formula 1 – on three occasions for the Three-Pointed Star prior to World War Two.
Caracciola used the 500 K until the late ‘30s before selling it through a Parisian dealer, reportedly to Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano. The car was later discovered hidden under tarpaulin sheets in Ethiopia and subsequently acquired by Long Beach dentist and Bugatti collector Dr Milton Roth. It passed through the hands of several more owners before being purchased by Rudi Klein in 1979.
The two Mercedes-Benz cars were followed by the sole-surviving 1939 Horch 855 Special Roadster, which sold for $3.30m. One of either five or seven examples ever constructed, the Horch was built upon a shortened 853 chassis and fitted with Special Roadster bodywork by Gläser.
First delivered to the Netherlands, the car was purchased in the late 1940s by Loren E Lawrence, a US Army counter-intelligence officer stationed in Germany. He brought it stateside, but sold it in 1953 upon accepting a State Department post in Europe.
California’s Kings of the Road Museum sold it to Purcell M Ingram, before James Bruckler Sr acquired it in 1959. The car appeared in several films, then joined Movieworld Cars of the Stars in Buena Park. Klein acquired it in 1980. In 1992, Audi borrowed this 855 and two other Horches for its Ingolstadt Forum museum, restoring them over 30 months for what became a 30-year exhibition.
The Lamborghini Miuras in the collection garnered plenty of attention, with three examples offered in addition to the nose section of a bodyshell. The most impressive result was posted by a 1968 Miura P400 that sold for $1.32m. This particular car was the 159th of 275 built, and was originally finished in Giallo Miura paintwork over a Bleu interior. Its sale price almost doubled its $700,000 high estimate.
It was followed by a Bleu over Bleu 1969 P400 S ($967,500) and a thin-gauge body 1967 P400 ($610,000). The incomplete Miura bodyshell sold for $56,000 alongside a 1969 Volkswagen Type 2 Single-Cab Pick-up.
Top ten lots:
1. 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Alloy Gullwing sold for $9,355,000
2. 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500 K ‘Caracciola’ Special Coupe by Sindelfingen sold for $4,130,000
3. 1939 Horch 855 Special Roadster by Gläser sold for $3,305,000
4. 1964 Iso Grifo A3/L Spider Prototype by Bertone sold for $1,875,000
5. 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400 by Bertone sold for $1,325,000
6. 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster sold for $1,187,500
7. 1962 Porsche 356 B 1600 ‘Twin-Grille’ Roadster by D’Ieteren sold for $1,160,000
8. 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400 S by Bertone sold for $967,500
9. 1959 Porsche 356 A Carrera 1500 GS/GT Coupé by Reutter sold for $885,000
10. 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400 by Bertone sold for $610,000
