The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, based at the home of the world famous Indy 500, is selling 11 of its exhibits in three separate RM Sotheby’s sales, amid a full renovation of the museum. We asked IMS Museum president Joe Hale why.
“This was a process that was actually begun by our board in 2017 to focus on Indy cars; you know, cars that had raced here at the track,” explains Joe. “And we had a lot of cars, and many of them were valuable, as you know. So what the board decided to do in 2017 was de-assess those cars that didn’t have anything to do with the Indy 500 and really focus on cars that do so.
“Of the 11 cars that are going to be sold here in the next four or five months, the W 196 R Mercedes will be sold at the Mercedes headquarters in Stuttgart on February 1. The Ferrari 250 LM is going to be sold at the Louvre in Paris on February 5, and then the remaining cars will be sold at ModaMiami at the end of February.
“We can’t use the proceeds of that sale to build a new museum, but the proceeds will go to two functions: the care of the collection and to enhance our collection. So we do hope to buy more Indy-winning cars, as well as artefacts from maybe under-represented areas of the race. And then a restoration shop that will be our next phase will really care for the collection in a better way than we’ve been able to in the past.
“We hope to have storage for about 150 cars, plus a detailing area in this restoration shop, hopefully a very short distance from the track. It could be an add-on tour that we’re able to offer to people as well, so they get to see another 160 or more [150 storage plus restoration projects] really cool cars.”
Why can’t the money be used towards the museum building itself? Especially as the target to cover the cost of the work that’s going on at the moment is a daunting $89 million. Again, Joe explains the situation:
“It’s all about museum best practice. We really are interested in becoming accredited at some time with the American Alliance of Museums. There’s a process that you need to go through, but we’re trying to abide by its rules now: the Association says that when you do de-assess items from your collection, you’ve got to reinvest the proceeds back into your collection base rather than capital improvements.
“So we’re still fundraising [for the building work]. We just sent out a general solicitation to people who had bought tickets to the Indy 500, and we’ve had about 300 new donors to our campaign in the past month. So we continue to get people who want to support this project. They realise how important it is. I mean, I don’t care where you go in the world, when you mention Indianapolis, typically, it’s related to the Indianapolis 500: it’s iconic, and that’s what brings people here to our museum.
“It’s a bucket-list destination for a lot of people. Eighty percent of our visitors come from outside of the state of Indiana. Twenty percent of our visitors come from outside the United States. It’s those people who may want to see Wimbledon, they may want to see the Roman Coliseum, and they want to see the Indy 500 track, too.”
There’s always a danger when any institution sells some of its artefacts that the public reacts badly, but Joe says that the IMS Museum is on top of that, and most people understand why it’s selling the cars that don’t relate specifically to the Indy 500.
“We haven’t had a bad reaction [to the car sale announcement] by any means,” he explains, “but it’s taken a lot of time to explain to people that, yes, we could be receiving a substantial amount of money from this sale, and that we’re going to put in most of it into an endowment, and that’s going to ensure the future of this museum for generations to come.
“We can’t spend that money on improvements. We can’t spend it on capital investment. So we’ve still got to raise the money for the museum. We’re not going to be touching the principal [sum]. But let’s say we end up – and I’m just using a number – with $100 million and we want to take 5 percent of that a year. That’s $5 million we can spend to buy more Indy-winning race cars, you know, more items from Janet Guthrie, Danica Patrick or other women who have raced here, and people of colour that have been involved in this race, as either mechanics or drivers, in the past. So we really can broaden our collection quite a bit, but the challenge has been to explain to people what we plan to do with the money, what we can do with it, and what we’re not going to be doing with it.”
The star of the RM Sotheby’s sales is the Mercedes W 196 R, which Mercedes gave to the museum in 1965. There had been speculation that the museum would be sharing proceeds with Mercedes-Benz, but that’s not the case, as Joe explains – and there’s clearly no bad blood over it, seeing as the sale is being held at the Mercedes-Benz Museum.
“The Mercedes W 196 R was in our collection,” confirms Joe. “It was given as a gift to Mr Holman years ago, and it’s been in our collection ever since. So we have the latitude to de-assess it. The board voted on that years ago, and so we’re finishing up that process.
“We’re going have a hell of a grand opening in April 2025. I hope a lot of people show up, and we can’t wait to welcome people back. I think they’re going to be astounded. I think they’re going to be blown away by what they see. It is so different from anything that it’s been in the past. You know, we always used to get dinged a little bit. People called it an indoor parking lot. I think people are going to be just very, very impressed with this massive transformational renovation that we’ve just been going through.”
For more on the sale visit RM Sotheby’s. Information about the IMS Museum can be found here.
