Staggering Barn-Find Discovery With Over 80 Legendary And Classic Cars

You would expect that after all those years, there are no more barns left unchecked but apparently you (we) are wrong as a massive collection of 81 ‘barn-find’ classics were offered in an auction in France, including a 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400.

All 81 cars were discovered in varying states of disrepair when their owner, a man called Henry Ruggieri, passed away. Ruggieri parked the cars in five different locations, with some of them found inside barns and others hidden under tree branches. Each car has a missing component, as a way to prevent theft.

Along with the cars, the experts discovered lots of parts and components, including engines, doors and various other bits.

The highlight of this unusual collection is the Lamborghini; chassis no. 3285 is the 118^th Miura produced and is described as a matching-numbers example. The odometer shows 77,886km (48,396 miles), so clearly the car was in use up until some point. Even in this state, the Italian supercar managed to fetch 560,000 euros ($636k in current exchange rates).

The collection includes cars from USA, Germany, Italy, UK, and of course France. Among the discoveries there’s a 1953 Porsche 356 Pre-A, a Jaguar E-Type, a C3 Corvette, a Lincoln Continental, a Lancia Flaminia, an Alfa Romeo 90, plenty of Citroens and Peugeots, as well as more eclectic choices like a 1947 Hotchkiss.

All cars were auctioned by Interencheres on January 20 in Tarbes, France. Despite its rather sad condition, the 1953 Porsche 356 Pre-A was sold for 48,000 euros ($54k) while the 1961 Jaguar E-Type fetched 99,000 euros ($112k). For a complete list of all the cars, see below.