Alexa
  • Directory of Taiwan

French fashion heir sold classic Ferrari 250 GTO to Taiwan businessman

The 'Mona Lisa of Ferraris' went for 38 million euro: reports

  5030
A Ferrari 250 GTO (photo by Mutari)

A Ferrari 250 GTO (photo by Mutari) (Wikimedia Commons photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - A classic Ferrari sports car involved in an inheritance dispute between members of a French fashion dynasty was sold to an unnamed Taiwanese businessman, reports said Saturday.

Siblings Jean-François and Anne Bardinon have been suing their brother Patrick over ownership of a Ferrari 250 GTO, one of only about 36 made in Italy in the early 1960s.

Patrick Bardinon, one of the heirs to luxury leather goods brand Chapal, stood accused at a court case last week of having sold off the car on his own to a “Taiwanese businessman who made his fortune in the United States” for 38 million euros (NT$1.3 billion) four years ago, according to newspaper Le Parisien.

The name of the businessman was not mentioned, and it was not clear whether the car had been transferred to Taiwan.

Bardinon told the court his late father had given him the car after seeing him survive a racing accident against all odds. Patrick sold off the vehicle in order to be able to pay for the stiff French inheritance taxes, reports said.

However, his siblings accused him of having removed the Ferrari in secret from the family’s extensive classic car collection.

The Bardinon family fortune was estimated at between 250 million and 400 million euro. A ruling in the dispute over the car was expected in March.

The father reportedly bought the 250 GTO, which has been described as the “hottest car of all time” and as “the Mona Lisa of Ferraris,” for 700 euro in 1978 before fixing it up for double that sum.