Zurich Paid for the Ferraris and Argued About the Rest
Broad Arrow closed its 2026 auction calendar at the Dolder Grand on 7 November with CHF 24,723,338 in sales and an 80 percent sell-through rate. The no reserve LaFerrari landed inside its estimate. The two provenance stories of the preview, the Geneva show Bugatti and the unrestored Gullwing, both sold below theirs. The room was selective, and the numbers show exactly where.
The second Zurich Auction took place on Saturday 7 November at the Dolder Grand, in partnership with Auto Zurich, and it closed Broad Arrow's 2026 auction calendar. The house reports an 80 percent sell-through rate across more than 100 lots, for total sales of CHF 24,723,338, a figure it describes as the best collector car auction result in Switzerland this year. Bidders from 31 countries took part, 47 percent of them bidding with the house for the first time and 37 percent of all bidders based in Switzerland. Every price in this report is the all in price published by the house, in Swiss francs, including buyer's premium. The house states its premium for motor cars as 15 percent of the first CHF 250,000 of hammer price and 12.5 percent of the amount above that, in each case plus VAT on the premium, and its published results include post-sale transactions completed immediately after the sale.
Paper opened the bidding in Zurich. It did not finish it.
The LaFerrari did what no reserve cars are meant to do
The headline lot was the 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari finished in Bianco Fuji over a Bianchi and Neri leather interior, offered without reserve against an estimate of CHF 5.5 million to CHF 7.5 million. It sold for CHF 5,856,250, inside the estimate band and nearer its lower end. That is a clean market reading of a specific kind. With no seller's floor beneath the car, the number is simply what two or more bidders in a full room were prepared to pay on the day, and it sits in a sensible relationship to the house's Zoute result in October, where a Grigio Ferro LaFerrari made 5,181,250 euros. Different currencies and different cars prevent a precise comparison, but the Zurich car did not need its rarity of colour to be rescued by a reserve. The room priced it, and the price held.
Provenance was not a guarantee
The preview of this sale argued that provenance was the product on offer, and the results qualify that argument in an instructive way. The 2012 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse that Bugatti displayed at the Geneva Motor Show to launch the model sold for CHF 2,368,750, below its estimate of CHF 2.6 million to CHF 3.3 million. The 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, a car that had never been restored and was offered for the first time in 32 years, sold for CHF 1,100,000 against an estimate of CHF 1.35 million to CHF 1.65 million. Neither result is a failure. Both cars sold, in a room that was plainly discriminating. But the gap between estimate and outcome in both cases says that a documented story raises interest without setting the price. In Zurich, paper opened the bidding. It did not finish it.
The contrast came from the second Ferrari. The 2017 Ferrari F12tdf, also offered without reserve, sold for CHF 1,547,500, above the top of its CHF 1.3 million to CHF 1.5 million estimate. The 2019 McLaren Senna in Volcano Orange, showing delivery mileage, sold for CHF 1,131,250, inside its CHF 1.1 million to CHF 1.4 million estimate. Read together, the pattern is not complicated. The modern, usable, immediately legible cars were bid to or beyond their estimates. The cars whose value depended most on a story the buyer had to absorb were bid more cautiously. That is a mature room behaving like a mature room.
Depth below the headlines
Below the top lots, the sale had genuine breadth. The 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss, one of 75 built, was sold after the auction; the house lists it second in its top ten without publishing a price, so no figure is reported here. The 2023 BMW 3.0 CSL owned by former BMW Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld, one of 50 built, sold for CHF 906,250 after Heidfeld drove the car to the auction himself. A 2020 Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger Edition made CHF 765,625, a 1985 Audi Sport quattro in Tornado Red made CHF 703,750, and a 2008 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Edition Roadster by MSO made CHF 568,750. Further down, a 1987 Ferrari Testarossa drew applause in the room at CHF 149,500, a De Tomaso Pantera Si made CHF 218,500, and a 1996 Ferrari F355 Berlinetta offered without reserve reached CHF 161,000, close to the upper end of its estimate. A 1996 De Tomaso Guara Coupe, one of 21 built, sold for CHF 103,500.
What the sale actually proved
The honest summary requires holding two facts at once. The total rose on the inaugural Zurich sale, which the house put at CHF 22 million, while the sell-through rate fell from 87 percent to 80 percent on a larger catalogue. Growth and selectivity arrived together, which is what a second year in a serious market usually looks like. The house also used the occasion to look forward: its first Paris auction is scheduled for 3 February 2027 at the Peninsula Paris, timed to coincide with Retromobile Week. Zurich has earned its place in that calendar not by producing a record for a single car, but by producing a room that pays full price for the right modern Ferrari, argues carefully over a show car, and still finds CHF 906,250 for a BMW with a racing driver in its paperwork. That is a collector market in working order.
