You could easily call it "Lake Maggiore Bugatti." This 1925 Brescia Type 22 hasn’t hit the streets for 73 years. In fact, up until 2009, it rested 53 metres deep in Lake Maggiore, Switzerland. Brought to the surface by a team of divers a couple of months ago, it will likely attract collectors from all over the world and sell for anywhere between $100,000 and $135,000 according to the vintage car experts at Bonhams!
This unique Brescia will indeed become a highly-coveted item at the Bonhams auction set to take place on Saturday, January 23 during the 35th Paris Retromobile (Porte de Versailles, January 22-31, 2010).
Unearthly story
Of course, none of the cars on the catalogue has a more remarkable albeit gloomy story than the long-lost Bugatti Brescia.
It all began on April 22, 1925 when this beautiful torpedo was delivered to a Frenchman from Nancy and presumably driven around Paris until 1930.
That’s when the story gets fishy (pun intended). We know that it ended up in Ascona, Switzerland, an old fishermen town located on the northwest shore of Lake Maggiore. Historians assume that it was purchased by a famous Swiss architect of Polish descent named Marco Schmuklerski, who reportedly drove the car in the now-popular tourist area until he moved away in 1936.
The aging Bugatti became a problem when customs officers sent a notice to the owners of the warehouse where it had been stored. Rather than paying duty on the car's importation, they decided to toss it into the lake; chains were attached to the Bugatti to facilitate its recovery. However, no one thought about corrosion. The chains broke in little time and the car sunk all the way to the bottom of the lake!
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| Bugatti Brescia type 22 1925 |
This unique Brescia will indeed become a highly-coveted item at the Bonhams auction set to take place on Saturday, January 23 during the 35th Paris Retromobile (Porte de Versailles, January 22-31, 2010).
Unearthly story
Of course, none of the cars on the catalogue has a more remarkable albeit gloomy story than the long-lost Bugatti Brescia.
It all began on April 22, 1925 when this beautiful torpedo was delivered to a Frenchman from Nancy and presumably driven around Paris until 1930.
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| Auburn V12 cabriolet (€220,000 - 260,000) |
That’s when the story gets fishy (pun intended). We know that it ended up in Ascona, Switzerland, an old fishermen town located on the northwest shore of Lake Maggiore. Historians assume that it was purchased by a famous Swiss architect of Polish descent named Marco Schmuklerski, who reportedly drove the car in the now-popular tourist area until he moved away in 1936.
The aging Bugatti became a problem when customs officers sent a notice to the owners of the warehouse where it had been stored. Rather than paying duty on the car's importation, they decided to toss it into the lake; chains were attached to the Bugatti to facilitate its recovery. However, no one thought about corrosion. The chains broke in little time and the car sunk all the way to the bottom of the lake!
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| Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza 1932 |