Provenance Is the Product at Zurich
Broad Arrow returns to the Dolder Grand on Saturday 7 November with more than 80 collector cars, almost half of them offered without reserve. The catalogue is built less on horsepower than on paper: a Geneva show car, an unrestored Gullwing offered for the first time in 32 years, and a LaFerrari the room will be allowed to price on its own.
The second Zurich Auction takes place on Saturday 7 November at the Dolder Grand, overlooking Lake Zurich, as the official auction partner of the Auto Zurich motor show. Broad Arrow has published a catalogue of more than 80 collector cars alongside 25 memorabilia lots. The benchmark is the house's own first attempt: the inaugural Zurich sale totalled CHF 22 million with an 87 percent sell-through rate. The sale follows the house's record result at Zoute in October, where 91 percent of lots sold for a total of 34.6 million euros. What Zurich tests is whether the same formula works in Swiss francs, in front of the most document minded collectors in Europe.
Condition can be corrected later. Provenance cannot.
The show car
The catalogue's headline is a 2012 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse, estimated at CHF 2.6 million to CHF 3.3 million. Its value does not rest on the model alone. The Vitesse was the final open version of the Veyron line, and 92 examples were produced. This car, chassis 015, is one of the two examples Bugatti itself placed on its stand at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show to announce the model, finished in Jet Grey over a Tangerine and black interior and still carrying its Geneva Motor Show plaques. In a catalogue full of rare cars, it is the one whose identity is a document: a car Bugatti chose to represent the model at its unveiling, photographed on the stand where the model's public life began.
The Gullwing that was left alone
The counterweight is a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, estimated at CHF 1.35 million to CHF 1.65 million, the same estimate band as the Ferrari 275 GTS elsewhere in the catalogue. It is one of 155 Gullwings delivered new in Fire Engine Red. Its first owner was Alex Raymond, the creator of Flash Gordon. The house describes the car as remarkably original and never in need of restoration, offered for sale for the first time in 32 years, and notes its eligibility for events including the Mille Miglia Storica. Where the Bugatti sells its paper, the Gullwing sells its restraint: seven decades in which nobody improved it. Between them, the two cars state the catalogue's thesis plainly. Condition can be corrected later. Provenance cannot.
No reserve, as a statement
Almost half the catalogue is offered without reserve. Paul Gaucher, the house's head of consignments for Switzerland, presents the catalogue as built for a wide range of budgets, and a no reserve lot is the purest form of that promise: the high bid takes the car, whatever it is. The policy reaches the very top of the sale. The 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari, finished in the rare colour Bianco Fuji, carries an estimate of CHF 5.5 million to CHF 7.5 million and is offered without reserve. The 2017 Ferrari F12tdf, estimated at CHF 1.3 million to CHF 1.5 million, is also offered without reserve. A house does not expose its two headline Ferraris to an open room unless it trusts the depth of that room.
The LaFerrari will be read against Zoute, where a Grigio Ferro LaFerrari sold for 5,181,250 euros against an estimate of 4.0 million to 5.0 million euros. The currencies differ, so the comparison is indicative only, but the Zurich estimate band sits above the Zoute result, and with no reserve the car will sell at whatever the room decides on the day. That makes it the cleanest market reading in the sale: no seller's floor beneath it, one number, publicly arrived at.
The supporting cast, and what to watch
Around the headlines, the depth is real. A 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss, one of 75 built, showing 13,410 kilometres and still with its first owner, is estimated at CHF 2.5 million to CHF 3.0 million. The Senna pictured here carries an estimate of CHF 1.1 million to CHF 1.4 million. The 1966 Ferrari 275 GTS, one of 200 built, matching numbers and accompanied by its Ferrari Classiche Red Book issued in 2011, is estimated at CHF 1.35 million to CHF 1.65 million, and a 2018 Ford GT, showing 1,642 kilometres, at CHF 600,000 to CHF 700,000. The Swiss notes are present too, among them a 2023 BMW 3.0 CSL owned from new by the former Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld, and an example of the Monteverdi marque. On Saturday the questions are three. Do the no reserve Ferraris clear the low ends of their estimates? Does a show car's paper outbid a driver's car? And does Zurich beat its own first year, CHF 22 million at 87 percent? The results will be reported here with estimates, hammer prices and all in prices kept separate, as they should be.
