The collection was assembled starting the 1950s by Roger Baillon, who ran a transport company based in the west of France. He had planned to display the pre-war cars he was collecting in a museum.
Some of the most outstanding cars in the collection are:
several Talbot Lago T26s
a very rare Grand Sport Aerodynamique
and a Cabriolet once owned by King Farouk of Egypt,
a Talbot Lago T26 Record Coupe with coachwork by Saoutchik
a Hispano Suiza H6B cabriolet Millon-Guiet,
an important 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider, one of 36
a Bugatti Type 57 Ventoux
a Maserati A6G Gran Sport body by Frua, one of 3, worth about 3 million
Some other well known car makers are also in the collection, which hasn't had it's full inventory released yet, Hispano Suiza, Avions Voisin, Panhard-Levassor, Porsche, Facel Vega, Hotchkis, Lagonda, Delahaye, and Delage
All will be sold by Artcurial Motorcars in the first part of its annual sale at the Retromobile Salon, on February 6, 2015, in Paris.
There were only 36 of these 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider made, and this one was thought lost, all the others have been accounted for.
It had been bought new by actor Gérard Blain who sold it to his fellow actor Alain Delon who was photographed several times at the wheel of this machine in 1964 with Jane Fonda during the filming ‘Les Félins’ and on the Côte d’Azur with Shirley MacLaine.
Info, and more photos at http://theoldmotor.com/?p=134365
the original source http://www.artcurial.com/pdf/presse/2015/cp-Collection-Baillon-en.pdf has an interview with the guys that searched and located this collection and were the 1st outsiders to open this collection to the public knowledge
"The cars weren’t stored in solid, purpose built sheds, but completely makeshift constructions. We came closer and realised that there were dozens of cars parked underneath. We soon realised that some of these had been put there 50 years earlier and left untouched. Wooden posts, between the cars, supported the fragile roofs. The sides were open to the elements.
However, before the inventory, recording and researching their history, we needed to see everything. We continued our exploration at a second site, at the bottom of a field, then in one of the property’s outbuildings, an old barn that had been converted into an improvised garage.
This was somewhere between a metallic graveyard and a museum. Nature had taken a hold, over the years. Ivy had invaded a car and entirely covered its wheel, while weeds had taken root in a passenger compartment as easily as in a greenhouse.
For the facts about the collection, how it came to be, and why 2 auctions have already occurred that no one remembers from this collection: http://deux-sevres-auto-memoire.auto-blog.fr/766485/Un-peu-d-histoire-sur-la-fantastique-collection-Baillon/
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