Arguably one of the best-known cars of all time, and most certainly one of the most recognizable Bond cars of all time may have been found. The car, an Aston Martin DB5 that starred in both Goldfinger and Thunderball, is said to have been recently seen in the Middle East.
Stolen from a private hangar at the Boca Raton Airport in Florida in the dead of night, the car has been missing since 1997. One of four DB5s used for filming, it was the only version to feature working gadgets, that include ejector seats, tire-shredders, a bulletproof shield, as well as oil, smoke, and water sprayers.
Although the last time it was bought, it sold for $275,000 in 1986 ($685,000 adjusting for inflation), the car is now estimated to be worth upwards of $24 million. As a result of its value and pop-cultural cache, it is the subject of an upcoming podcast called “The Great James Bond Car Robbery” that is being hosted by Elizabeth Hurley.
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The Telegraph reports, though, that one of the podcast’s contributors has new information about the car. The VIN number of a recently spotted Aston Martin DB5 is said to match the missing Bond car’s and it is now believed that the car belongs to a private car collection somewhere in the Middle East.
“There are major automobile collectors in those countries and I have intelligence that the car could be in one of them and may have even traveled between them,” Christopher A Marinello of Art Recovery International told the Telegraph. “I’m hopeful that the possessor will come forward voluntarily before I have to make an announcement. It’s my policy to give possessors of stolen and looted objects every opportunity to do the right thing,”
Marinello believes that its current owner bought it without knowing it was stolen from the collection of memorabilia enthusiast Anthony Pugliese III.
The podcast is offering a $100,000 reward for any more information leading to the safe return of the car to Pugliese’s collection.
