Artcurial Motorcars didn’t just open Paris Classic Car Week with its inaugural Automobile Legends sale – it defined a highly positive tone for the rest of the 2026 European collector car season.
Held on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at The Peninsula Paris, the auction achieved a strong €15 million / $18 million total, an impressive result not only for a first-time format, but for a sale intentionally built around curation, atmosphere, and narrative rather than sheer volume. For four days leading up to the auction, the Peninsula’s garage was transformed into a refined exhibition space, drawing international collectors and signaling that Paris is no longer content to sit quietly on the sidelines of the global auction calendar.
The results confirmed that strategy. Artcurial’s performance is all the more commendable, given the fact that the venerable French auction house was displaced from the actual Salon Retromobile events as the official auction house by the recently merged Gooding Christie’s.
The undisputed anchor of the sale was a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, which soared to €4,407,800 ($5.28M), establishing a new world record. While this headline figure certainly commands attention, its importance runs deeper: the Gullwing provided instant credibility, grounding the auction with a universally recognized icon whose appeal transcends trends, currencies, and cycles.
Just as telling, however, was what happened beyond the top lot.
Motorsport history proved a powerful driver of demand. F1 legend Jean Alesi’s Ferrari F92A Formula 1 car achieved €2.91M ($3.49M), while his 1989 Tyrrell 018, his first Formula 1 car, added €834,400 ($999K). These results reinforce a growing truth in today’s collector market: competition cars are increasingly valued not just as artifacts, but as narrative objects – where driver association, moment-in-time relevance, and emotional connection matter as much as outright rarity.
On the road-car side, the sale offered a revealing snapshot of current collector tastes. A 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400 “Prima Serie”, matching numbers and presented in impeccable condition, realized €1.4M ($1.68M), a reminder that early, correct Miuras continue to sit at the intersection of blue-chip security and visual drama.
A 2006 Porsche Carrera GT, one of the modern analog era’s most enduring icons, brought €1.65M ($1.98M), confirming that demand remains robust for cars that represent the final chapter of an uncompromising driving experience.
Equally instructive were the results slightly off the obvious headline path. A manual, Charlotte Green Honda NSX-T, a Giallo Ginestra Lancia Delta Integrale Evo 2, and a rare De Tomaso Mangusta all attracted spirited bidding. These are not speculative outliers – they are cars prized for authenticity, specification, and driver engagement, precisely the attributes today’s buyers are increasingly unwilling to compromise on.
Fittingly for a Paris-based sale, French marques enjoyed a moment firmly in the spotlight. Alpines, in particular, resonated with collectors. A 1974 Alpine-Renault A110 SC, once owned by Jean-Pierre Jabouille and prepared to his specifications, set a world record at €178,800 ($214K). Another record followed for a 1992 Alpine A610 Olympique, produced in extremely limited numbers for the Albertville Winter Olympics. Even a family-owned 1968 Renault 4L, preserved since new, achieved a world-record price – a powerful reminder that originality and story can still outweigh horsepower in the right context.
Taken together, these results point to something more than a successful single sale.
Artcurial’s Automobile Legends auction wasn’t built to chase a single trophy car. It was designed to test whether a carefully curated, emotionally coherent sale could succeed in a premium setting outside the traditional auction hotspots of Paris’ Salon Retromobile festivities – and the answer was a clear yes. The presence of multiple world records across different segments suggests depth, not dependency, and strong international participation underscores continued confidence among serious collectors.
In a market that has moved beyond peak-cycle exuberance, this sale reinforced an increasingly clear pattern: buyers are still paying up – but only for the right cars, presented the right way, at the right moment. Condition, provenance, and narrative are no longer secondary considerations; they are the market.
By launching Paris Classic Car Week with Automobile Legends at The Peninsula, Artcurial sent a deliberate message – not just about results, but about the European market’s direction and the company’s adaptability. And judging by the response, collectors were more than ready to bid.
Images and results courtesy Artcurial.
About Motorcopia
Motorcopia is an independent collector-car market intelligence and publishing platform founded by David C.R. Neyens, a veteran writer, researcher, and auction-catalogue specialist with a long-standing presence in the industry since2008.since 2008
Motorcopia delivers proprietary market indices – including the Market Pulse™, Forward Index™, Buy/Sell/Hold Index™, and ValueScope™ – alongside auction coverage, investment insights, and collector-vehicle analysis.
With a focus on serving high-net-worth collectors, advisors, and industry professionals, Motorcopia combines deep cataloguing expertise with data-driven reporting to spotlight actionable trends, opportunities, and results across the global collector-car market.
⚑ Motorcopia Market Insights – Where passion meets performance, on the road and the charts.
Motorcopia. Independent, Impartial, Data-Driven.
Powered by Passion, Driven By Data.
Buy. Sell. Hold. Drive.
Leave a Reply