the two tone yellow T57sc ex harrah`s collection failed to sell at a reported
$ 4,4 mio. this is much lower than the ex dr. williamson T57sc sold last year. general decline?? or the too much restoration of the car, that
harrah usually "did" to his cars....

regards
mike

Hi Mike

I don't believe it is due to over-restoration ; after all, it was restored in 1970's. In Bill Harrah's defence, 57521 was, in the immortal words of Kent Karslake, "applauded out" when he got it, and during the late 1930's it was substantially rebuilt (including the wide rear-end) to resemble the then owner's Delahaye (or was it a Talbot?) Of course Bill Harrah did add his own touches to it when it was prepared for the 1976 Pebble Beach, that two tone yellow for instance.

As to the state of the market for Bugattis I really can't say, but 3 T57S Atalantes coming to market in such a relatively short period of time may very well exert some downward pressure. But this is pure speculation on my part, not based on fact.


As rebuilt pre-war.


As acquired by Bill Harrah


Post 1976

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner

like most of the american collectors, harrah restored most of his cars to a 1oo point value , which in most of the cases means: better than new. he only left a few cars in original condition like the 19o8 new york-paris thomas flyer.
but he had an interesting bugatti-collection: T35, T52, T38 two royals, the
famous T 46/50, some T57 and most famous of all, the T10 " bathtube".

the story of it´s aquisition is told a wonderfull book about the collection with a list of all cars and colour pics without end.

sadly harrah never thought about what will come after his death, and after he died unexpectly , his hotels/cassinos were sold to the holiday inn group,
which was very astonished in finding out, that the museum also belonged
to the harrah group. the collection , that housed nearly 2ooo cars, was knocked down to some 25o in several auctions.

mike

As it said on the Bugatti page site, it all swings on the sale of 57502.
If people are in the market for a 57s that is obviously the one to go for.
I know of one billionare car collector who is going for it.
If that car doesn't beat all records then I think the downturn has truly hit the market.

What is the name of the book on the collection?
Erik

I'd like to add an explanation to what Johann wrote. Karslake said the Atalanta was "clapped out". To clap means to applaud. But in this context, "clapped out" means worn out. Pico

the name of the book is: the harrah collection" it was published in the early 9o`s in US and Ive bought it directly, cause it was`nt available here.
I´m shure it´s now long out of print.

regards
mike