Ferrari leads way at classic auction to hit $400m

A $38.1 million (€29.4m) Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta led the annual parade of classic car auctions in California to a record tally of almost $400m (€308.7m).

The sales at Bonhams, Gooding & Co, and RM Auctions were part of the six-day auto extravaganza held last month.

The values of classic cars have risen along with other high-end collectibles, including art and wine, as wealthy individuals’ appetite for alternative investments grows. The price for the red Ferrari 250 GTO smashed the previous global auction record of $29.7m (€22.9m) set a year ago. The new high is a 132 percent increase from 2011, when a 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa prototype fetched $16.4m (€12.7m) at Gooding. “The market is the highest it’s ever been,” said McKeel Hagerty, chief executive officer of Hagerty, a Traverse City, Michigan-based insurer and classic car database. “There are new buyers from Europe, Asia, Latin America and some from the Middle East.”