Piet den Hartogh dedicated 50 years of his life to collecting classic Fords, a collection that formed the Den Hartogh Museum in the Netherlands. The impressive collection comprised 220 Fords, ranging from Model As and Ts through to wood-panelled station wagons and vintage buses.
Sadly, Piet passed away in 2010 and the family felt that it wasn’t the same running the museum without his passion. They therefore decided to close the museum’s doors to the public in 2010 before making the decision to put the collection up for auction. The family felt that the collection wasn’t getting the love that it deserved without Piet and wanted each piece to be cherished in the way that he had done.
The vehicles went up for auction on 23rd June 2018 and every item found a new owner, a rarity for vast quantity auctions, making a total of €6,157,353 between them. One of the most popular items was a 1905 Ford Model B Side Entrance Tonneau that started a large bidding war and was eventually bought for €419,750, which was not only more than seven times its estimate, but also became a new world record price.
