When Roger Baillon's plans for a museum to house his collection fell through in the 1970s, he began to sell his cars. Few would have guessed that he would have kept hold of the best, and that they would be discovered on a French farm in 2014.
Many of these barn-find classics were slowly returning to the earth, but that didn't stop them from bringing in millions of pounds – in some case 10 times their estimates – when they were auctioned at Rétromobile earlier this year.
Top of the pile was the ex-Alain Delon Ferrari 250GT California Spider, which was in much better condition than the majority of the collection and sold for a hammer price of more than €14m.
Here is a collection of images from Artcurial's sale.
The Facel Vega excellence drew plenty of admiring glances prior to crossing the block.
Though most visitors were clamouring to see the ex-Delon Ferrari, many overlooked this handsome Maserati, which owes its good condition to being stored next to the California Spider. It sold for £1,491,424.
