Wrecked Ferrari Sells For $250k As Objet Trouvé In Paris

Ferraris are constantly fetching ever-escalating prices. A 250 LM from 1964 recently sold for $14M. Before that, a 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder of 1967 vintage sold for $27.5M and a 250 GTO was said to have traded hands at $52M. A paltry $250k, by comparison, doesn't seem like much for a classic Ferrari — heck, that'll barely get you behind the wheel of a new model these days — until you realize that this one doesn't even run. It's a complete wreck. However, some are calling it art.

That's the guise under which this particular Ferrari — a Dino 308 GT4 from the 1970s, to be specific — recently sold for a quarter million dollars. The vehicle was recovered in 1993 by celebrated French artist Bertrand Lavier and displayed as an "objet trouvé" (an ordinary object found and elevated to the status of original artwork) at the Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain (FIAC). That's where the Galerie Yvon Lambert found an unnamed Turkish collector who was willing to part with the $250k to take the busted auto home. Ironically, a working example of the same car wouldn't be worth a quarter of that amount. With a 3.0-liter V6 mounted behind a 2+2 cockpit in the middle of an oddly wedge-like form, the 308 GT4 is not the most enduring of classic Ferraris — certainly not as charming as the 246 Dino that came before, and not as powerful as the eight-cylinder Mondial that followed.

This kind of discovery could only have occurred at FIAC. One of the famous art festivals on the calendar, FIAC is held every October since 1974 at the Grand Palais in Paris. The vast exposition hall in the heart of the French capital is located on the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement and was originally built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition.