1936 Mercedes may break record at Pebble Beach auction
A 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster will be among those auctioned after the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance car show.
By Jerry Hirsch and David Undercoffler, Los Angeles Times
August 15, 2012, 8:17 p.m.
When Gisela von Krieger died in 1989, the legal team sorting out her estate found a car hidden in a Connecticut barn.
Untouched for three decades, the vehicle was an automotive time capsule. Old maps of New York and Connecticut filled the door pockets. A woman's driving glove rested in the glove box. Pink lipstick-stained cigarette butts sat in the ashtray.
This wasn't any old car, though. It was a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster, one of perhaps a dozen left in the world, representing the height of prewar German automotive engineering. "Every little detail was over-engineered" to create "a tour de force of technology and quality," said McKeel Hagerty, who heads a company that insures classic and rare cars.
Von Krieger's brother Henning originally paid about $7,000 for the Mercedes. This Sunday, it's likely to fetch at least $10 million and could break the $16.4-million record for any auto sold at auction when it's put up for bid at the splashy Gooding & Co. auction that follows the Pebble BeachConcours d'Elegancecar show. The vehicle is owned by New Hampshire businessman Lee Herrington, who made his money through catalog sales of preppy clothing, shoes and gadgets.
How it got to the auction is the story of a German aristocrat who defied the Nazis and saved a glossy black Mercedes-Benz two-seater that today is rarer than a Stradivarius violin. Experts have dubbed it the automotive equivalent of a coveted Picasso.
"It is one of those cars that exemplify everything that is desirable about a classic automobile," said Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum. "It is gorgeous, it is powerful, it is rare and it was expensive."
Known as the Von Krieger Special Roadster, it was the favorite ride of Baroness Gisela von Krieger, a member of the Prussian nobility. She had a prewar romantic dalliance with a mysterious Jewish Englishman and, when the war started, refused orders from the Third Reich to return home from France.
Instead, Von Krieger and her mother fled to Switzerland. But the prized Mercedes was stuck at the Daimler-Benz plant in Germany where it was undergoing repairs after an accident. The baroness settled the bill and had the automaker ship the car by rail to Switzerland.
Von Krieger, who dressed in Chanel, lived an aristocratic lifestyle with her brother Henning and divorced mother, Josephine, while living in Paris in the 1930s, said George Maley, an auto collector and historian. Fast and expensive cars were a big part of that.
Maley met the baroness several times in Switzerland in the late 1970s and early '80s after hiring private detectives on two continents to find her. He had heard tales of her exceptional Mercedes, rumored to be housed at a Connecticut inn. Maley kept the secret from other collectors to block rivals from trying to buy the vehicle.
But he quickly learned that Von Krieger would not part with the beloved car even though there was little chance she would ever see it again.
At more than 17 feet long and 6 feet wide, the roadster is roughly the dimensions of a new Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle. The front is highlighted by a split grille offset by a pair of large round headlights that top a thin, polished chrome bumper. The long, glossy black hood hides an inline, supercharged eight-cylinder engine.
The car oozes elegance. The interior is brown leather, wood and chrome. Fenders cover the front wheels and then undulate downward under the doors to serve as a footstep. The car's lines then curve upward over the rear wheels and finish in a wide, low tail. A chromed Mercedes star ornament rises from the top of the hood. A tiny Von Krieger family crest is painted on the driver's door.
Maley said Von Krieger refused to sell the car because it was her last link to a carefree era when she socialized with European royalty and film stars.
Today's modern royalty — wealthy entrepreneurs, celebrities and racing legends — will see the Mercedes at the Pebble Beach auction managed by Gooding & Co. of Santa Monica on Sunday. Herrington, the car's owner, is selling the roadster to focus on his Ferrari collection. What he paid for the Mercedes was never made public. He did not return calls seeking comment.
First held in 1950, theConcours d'Elegancehas grown into what many now consider the most prestigious car show in the world, where luxury brands show off their new models, enthusiasts race vintage cars, and the rich and famous ogle one another's fancy rides. The festival includes collector car auctions by Gooding and rival Canadian firm RM Auctions.
The highlight is Sunday, when more than 15,000 spectators wander along the course at Pebble Beach Golf Links, viewing more than 200 entries in a judged collector vehicle show that includes the world's rarest cars and motorcycles.
The day concludes with one overall winner chosen from the class winners and given the prestigious Best of Show award . . .
