The world's most valuable barn find: 60 rare cars untouched for 50 years

 

At left is a Ferrari 250 GT California Spider valued at between EUR€9,500,000 and EUR€12,000,000 (USD$11,875,000 and USD$15,000,000) at right is one of just three Maserati A6G 2000 Berlinetta Grand Sport Fruas ever made, estimated to be worth more between EUR€800,000 and EUR€1,200,000 (USD$1-1.5 million) Image: © Artcurial Image Gallery (49 images) Proof that priceless barn finds are still possible emerged from France this week when elite auction house Artcurial disclosed it had discovered the automotive equivalent of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Earlier this year, Artcurial's Matthieu Lamoure and Pierre Novikoff came across the remarkable treasure trove of rare automobiles on a provincial farm in the West of France. Novikoff had fielded a phone call from the representative of a deceased estate, which in turn had been inherited by the deceased from his father a decade prior. Several children had been bequeathed the estate, which included a collection of old cars that had lain untouched for nearly half a century. In an effort to discover the value of the cars, they called Artcurial, best known as France's leading auctioneer of art and antiques. "On the phone, I gathered from the information I was given, that this could turn out to be something important," said Novikoff (above left), a specialist in the automotive side of Artcurial's business. "Without realizing the scale, I spoke to Matthieu immediately and we arranged to go there, to find out what it was." Lamoure takes up the story: "On entering the gates of this property, we had no idea what we would find. We had to go in through the gardens at the rear of the property, to get a first look." "Across three hectares, we could see different makeshift structures. Low shelters covered with corrugated iron. From there, we realised that this was something big. We still didn’t know what we were looking at, but could make out coachwork, weathered by time and the elements. Some modern shapes and others that were older." "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." As Lamoure and Novikoff moved around the farm, they found more and more cars under makeshift structures, often open to the elements and almost all of them were rare ... extremely rare. Matthieu Lamoure, the MD of Artcurial's automotive auction department is pictured during the 2012 auction of the private collection of automobiles belonging to the Prince of Monaco. As the Managing Director of Artcurial's automotive department, Lamoure has the acuity of immense collectible car knowledge, and as the pair of historic car aficionados walked around the farm, they recognized they had found something very special. "You go into this profession for discoveries like this ... this really is a treasure ... a once-in-a-lifetime discovery," said Lamoure. “When we arrived here, we found ourselves overcome with emotion. Probably much like Lord Carrington and Howard Carter, on being the first person for centuries to enter Tutankhamun’s tomb.” As the pair explored the site, they came across significant models from many of the legendary marques in automotive history: Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Talbot-Lago, Panhard-Levassor, Maserati, Ferrari, Delahaye, Delage. Along with the famous manufacturers, many of the bodies were built by the most celebrated coachbuilders of the period, such as Million & Guiet, Frua, Chapron and Saoutchik. No less than three Saoutchik-bodied Talbot Lago T26s were found among the sheds, including a very rare Grand Sport Aérodynamique and a Talbot Lago T26 Cabriolet once owned by King Farouk. Talbot Lago T26 Cabriolet Saoutchik – ex King Farouk Rare car auctioneers call it provenance, but get a few glasses of vino into someone who knows the business well and they'll tell you it's fundamentally about the story, a story which will be told many times, and if the value of a car is proportional to the story it can tell, the ex-Farouk Talbot Lago (far right in the above photo) should be near priceless. Farouk's outrageously ostentatious lifestyle saw him overindulge as only royalty can, and the tales of his excesses are too good not to recount here before we move on to the million dollar plus Ferrari and Maserati. The first Mercedes-Benz 540K Spezial Roadster - identical to Farouk's though his was red. Only 29 were ever made, far fewer have survived to this day, and the massive, handcrafted art deco sculpture was the absolute pinnacle of automotive desirability at the time Hitler gifted one to Farouk. Five 540Ks are in the top 100 most expensive cars of all time. Farouk's immense 100+ car collection included a Mercedes Benz 540K given to him as a wedding present by Adolf Hitler (the Spezial Roadster above had just been released and available imagery suggests Farouk's was identical to the first model above, albeit in red), though legend has it that his favourite car was a red 1947 Bentley Mark VI, with Figoni et Falaschi coachwork. All his cars were red, and other than palace and military vehicles which travelled with him in his entourage, he decreed that no other cars could be painted red, so that the police would not impede his progress. The only Bentley Mark VI ever graced with Figoni et Falaschi coachwork has twice sold at auction in the last year, fetching GBP£526,400 (US$849,520) at an RM auction in September, 2014, and US$605,000 at Bonhams' Scottsdale auction in January, and both times it was wearing black livery and no mention was made of Farouk in the auction descriptions. Hence we were beginning to wonder if the legend was incorrect, until we found these images of the same Bentley (Chassis no. B9AJ, Engine no. B65A) winning first place in the Post-War European Custom Coachwork class at Pebble Beach in 1990. The old pics offer a fascinating glimpse of the early days of the world's most prestigious auto gathering. A quarter century ago, Pebble Beach looked more a school fete than the hyper-elite social occasion it has evolved into. Most tellingly though, the car was presented in Farouk's colours at that time and this snippet from the Orlando Sentinel from 1991 suggests the car is indeed Farouk's former wheels. Any clarification from readers who know the history would be greatly appreciated. Farouk was an avid collector of almost anything that tickled his fancy. His coin collection was the world's most valuable (it included two of the top 10 most valuable coins in the world – a 1933 Double Eagle and a 1913 Liberty Head Nickel) and when the palace was finally breached by revolutionaries (apparently with help from the CIA, which had internally labelled the orchestrated coup "Project FF" for "Fat Fu*#er"), they found what has been claimed to be the world's most voluminous pornography collection. The reputation of Farouk's appetite for young female company was only exceeded by his gluttonous devotion to food, which saw him famously referred to as "a stomach with a head." Farouk reportedly ate 600 oysters a week, liked to eat caviar with a spoon straight from the jar and ... as we all know, much of what is written on the internet is unsubstantiated garbage, so we must add a note of caution on the authenticity of these tales. We don't subscribe to the old newsroom adage of never letting the facts get in the way of a good story, but if even ten percent of Farouk mythology is true, the car should be worth a lot more than it will sell for. Most fittingly, the Saoutchik-bodied T26 mirrors the legend of both its designer's work and its former owner's extravagance in all things material. A car is only "original" once This early Delahaye Coupé Chauffeur from the Baillon Collection would once have been a magnificent vehicle. There's still enough there for it to be perfectly reproduced by modern day artisans who can follow the template. © Artcurial There is no doubt that many of our readers are looking at the rusted wreckage portrayed in the image library and wondering if the gloss had been taken off this almost archeological find by the depleted state of the cars. Yes, it's a crying shame that they have been exposed to the weather for decades, but almost all of these cars are in a completely original and untouched state, and one of the interesting questions surrounding this unique circumstance is whether all of the cars will be restored to their former glory, as there are some, Lamoure included, who believe many will not, perhaps should not, be restored. "I think some should be left as they are, and others should be restored," said Lamoure. "This is a unique testimony. It is the collectors who have this opportunity to make the successful bid who will decide. If you think about it, there are always restored cars available to buy on the market. These vehicles are unique. This is a very rare opportunity presenting works of art unknown to the market. For the Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport coupé Saoutchik, caved in at the rear, I think it should be left in this condition. It is a sculpture." The Lady of the Lake. In 2010, a rusted 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia that had spent 75 years at the bottom of Lake Maggiore in North Italy was sold at a Bonhams auction for EUR 260,500, completing one of the most remarkable stories in automotive history. There are precedents for historically-important cars being purchased in unusable condition and left that way. In 2010, a rusted 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia (above) that had spent 75 years at the bottom of Lake Maggiore in North Italy was sold at a Bonhams auction for €260,500 (US$324,000), completing one of the most remarkable stories in automotive history. The car was purchased by the Mullin Automotive Museum in California and it is on display there in exactly the condition in which it was reclaimed from the lake as living proof of the craftsmanship of the era in general, and the Bugatti marque in particular. The underbidder, also an American, had intended to restore the car. I was personally relieved when I heard it was to be retained in its rescued state. What do you think? (let us know in the comments). "It is no coincidence that Artcurial has a collectors’ car department," said Novikoff. "Certain cars, much like paintings or sculptures, are works of art, created by artists! Not only the engineering, but their styling reflects the history of design." Whether or not the cars are restored, there is some blue sky for restorers. Ask a restorer of rare automobiles if they'd rather restore a car for the second time or the first time and you can guess the answer. A car is only original once, and if a previous restorer cut even the slightest corner, then you don't have an authentic template upon which to draw in returning the car to "original condition." If you're looking at the original motor, you know that you need to get a hose clamp exactly like THAT. Similarly the patina of the leather upholstery, woodgrain on the dash, and "mother of pearl" on the steering wheel centerpiece can all be replicated if you know what the original looked like. For those unaware of the "way they used to make 'em," whenever one of these vehicles was sent to a coachbuilder, each build was bespoke to the buyers preference, right down to the finest detail, and no two cars were identical. Even those cars bodied by the car's manufacturer would see evolution of the design from month to month. A matching numbers motor and body, as we expect all of these cars are, is essentially a license to recreate the original car. Find a motor and you could go to a craftsman and have one manifested from scratch, but it wouldn't be a real one, and would not command any realistic value at auction but in the rarest of circumstances. Authenticity is the key to a rare car that will appreciate in value, and all of these cars appear to be the genuine article. Having the original chassis and motor means it's worthwhile spending hundreds of thousands of dollars bringing it back to its initial delivery specification because in most cases, it won't be overcapitalization. We suspect that cars which come from the "Baillon barnfind" will be significantly enhanced in value by surviving the ordeal. Cars from the Baillon Collection can be expected to achieve legendary status. A perfect example of the value of authenticity surfaced last month when a Ferrari 250 GTO emerged from a two-year renovation at Ferrari Classiche. The two dominant marques in the rare car arena are Ferrari and Mercedes Benz, with Ferrari accounting for 53 of the top 100 cars ever sold at auction and Mercedes-Benz another ten. Not surprisingly, both companies now have specialized restoration departments that will make your car new again, regardless of how old it is, or how rare it is. As it has exclusive access to the company’s original technical designs and molds, Ferrari Classiche has cast numerous new engine parts, including 25 new V12 cylinder blocks and a similar number of cylinder heads, to help restore cars to original specifications. Rarer than a California Spider, the 250 GTO is the "Holy Grail" of Ferraris. The only GTO to have sold at auction for decades achieved the world auction record of US$38.115 million at Pebble Beach in August this year, and good ones with desirable provenance (i.e. a good story to tell your mates) have been known to sell privately for US$50 million plus. HAGI (Historic Automobile Group International) tracks the classic car market as an alternative asset class and its figures showed a 54.2% increase in the market value of the rare Ferraris in 2013. "Nothing else has grown at this rate," commented the founder of HAGI, Dietrich Hatlapa, adding that the value of the rarest Ferraris has increased by 15% per year over the last 30 years. Collectable automobiles are now offering far better returns than almost all other asset categories, traditional or otherwise, and auction prices seemed destined to continue to rise relentlessly. The term appreciation applies in more ways that one. Firstly, there's capital appreciation, and cars are now a legitimate wealth creation mechanism, and then there's the personal appreciation which goes far beyond mere numbers on a spreadsheet. This is an investment you can be very personally invested in. The GTO in question was participating in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of the GTO in 2012 when it had an accident. 23 of the 36 GTOs ever produced turned out for a not-so-leisurely classic car tour, but during the proceedings, one of them had a mishap near Blois. That's the blue and yellow GTO parked amongst the other GTOs. The GTO in question was participating in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of the GTO in 2012 when it had an accident. In a stunning turn-out, 23 of the 36 GTOs ever produced turned out for a not-so-leisurely classic car tour around France and Italy, but during the proceedings, one of them had a mishap near Blois in France, resulting in considerable damage to the GTO, not to mention said owner's spouse, who ended up in hospital with an unspecified number of broken bones. That's the blue and yellow GTO parked amongst the other GTOs above and below on the anniversary rally. If looking at this picture tickles your adrenals, the ripping V12 sounds from this video of the GTO's first on-track post-rebuild shakedown will definitely bring a smile to your face. With a value of $50 million, it's not surprising that GTO owners take good care of their cars. At one stage about two years ago, the Ferrari Classiche department in Maranello contained no less than five of the 36 250 GTOs built between 1962 and 1964. A Ferrari 250 GT California Spider Without doubt, the most valuable car Lamoure saw that day was a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider with covered headlights. Though there are rarer cars, (106 Ferrari 250 GT California Spiders were made – 56 short wheelbase and 50 long wheel base), the rare car market knows every such model, and this is one of several individual cars which were unaccounted for in the Ferrari Register and thought lost. There are no less than 13 California Spiders in the 100 most expensive cars of all time. The California Spider is by far the most popular model in our exclusive listing, with a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider having held the world's most valuable auction car record for a period of time. That's the ex-James Coburn Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider (above) going under the hammer at an RM Auction in 2008, where British TV and radio personality Chris Evans purchased the car for US$10.894 million, a world record at that time. A near identical car was more recently sold by Gooding & Co for US$15,180,000, and 10 California Spiders have sold for more than US$5 million at auction. Follow the links for an appreciation of the importance of the California Spider find, and be sure to put some time aside for our detailed overview of the rare car market. 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider $15,180,000 1960 Ferrari 250 GT California LWB Competizione Spider $11,275,000 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider $10,894,900 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider $8,800,000 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider $8,580,000 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider $8,250,000 1959 Ferrari 250 LWB California Spider Competizione $7,260,000 1957 Ferrari 250 GT California LWB Prototype Spider $6,600,000 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider $5,907,325 1962 Ferrari 250 SWB California Spider $5,115,000 Subsequent research has shown that the car found in the barn in Western France (Chassis 2935) has a spectacular provenance, which will add to its value when it crosses the auction block in Paris in February 2015. The Spider was purchased new by the actor Gérard Blain, then sold to fellow actor Alain Delon, who was photographed several times at the wheel of this machine, including in 1964 with Jane Fonda during the filming of Les Félins and on the Côte d’Azur with Shirley MacLaine. By complete coincidence, the sale of this collection will be part of Artcurial's Paris Retromobile auction, which will also feature a number of rare cars consigned which are not part of the collection and will feature a 1966 long nose Ferrari 275 GTB/2 originally owned by Roger Vadim and subsequently by Jane Fonda. The car (pictured below) has never left France, and it is estimated it will fetch €2,750,000 to €3,250,000 (US$3,640,000 to US$4,300,000). With the collection now consigned to be auctioned during the world-renowned Retromobile exhibition in Paris next February, Artcurial has placed a pre-sale estimate of between €9,500,000 and €12,000,000 (US$11.8 and $14.9 million) on the hyper-rare Ferrari. The origins of the Baillon Collection Just how the collection came to be spirited away for nearly half a century is predictably an interesting story. A collection of over 100 cars was assembled during the 1950s and 1960s by Roger Baillon, an entrepreneur who ran a French transport company (pictured below). "Up until 1977, Roger Baillon had a transport and truck manufacturing business in the west of France", said Pierre Novikoff. "Roger Baillon made his fortune manufacturing trucks, at a time when the transport business was booming, after the war. He had the monopoly on transporters for dangerous liquid chemicals, thanks to the design of a secure, watertight tank. At the same time, he produced a revolutionary lorry in 1950 that featured the first ever 'cabine avancée' (forward-control cab) in the transport industry! It was moving to find the relics of this great era, in the garden of the property." During the 1970s, before he could carry out the necessary restoration work, his business ran into financial problems and he was forced to sell fifty cars, but he didn't sell them all, leaving the remaining sixty cars in his collection languishing on the French farm. Baillon's dream was to eventually open a museum of pre-war automobiles but his financial circumstances and eventual ill health prevented the restoration of the collection. He passed away more than a decade ago, leaving the collection and estate on which it was housed to his son Jacques, who died last year. With the continuity and context of the collection's history broken, Baillon's grandchildren had no idea of the worth of the cars and called in Artcurial to value the cars, leading to Lamoure and Novikoff having their Tutankhamun’s tomb moment in history. A Panhard-Levassor Dynamic coupé possible an X76 or X77 from the the Baillon Collection. The car had a steel monocoque body that was electrically welded together and central steering wheel. When new, it would have looked like this. © Artcurial The importance of the find is quite significant in the world of collectible cars, and the irony is perhaps that if the collection had been sold at the time of Baillon's death, though it would have been in better condition, it would have been worth a fraction of its value today, such has been the growth in the value of rare cars in recent years. "Not since the revelation of the Schlumpf Collection in Mulhouse, of which Maître Hervé Poulain was the expert, has such a group of emblematic automobiles been disclosed and what is more, in such original condition," said Lamoure. The Schlumpf Collection was worth far more (it included a Bugatti Royale), and largely fully restored when it came to public notice, though its existence was well known and deliberately kept low key by the Schlumpf brothers. Novikoff highlighted during the interviews released at the announcement of the collection that the collectible car market has changed markedly since Baillon assembled his collection: "It was between 1955 and 1965 that he amassed the largest part of the models. Although collectors’ cars, and particularly post-war French models, are snapped up today in the salerooms, this has not always been the case. At that time, Roger Baillon saved many of these cars from the scrapyard." "This man was one of the early collectors. He wanted to celebrate the art of automotive engineering and bought a property to turn into an automobile museum. He began to buy key models in France and Europe. "Having a transport business, it was straightforward for him to have his treasure delivered to the property he had bought in 1953 for this purpose. He even acquired a little train which he planned to use to make a tour of the museum, that would pass by all the cars. "When the vehicles arrived, he put them away without much fuss, one next to the other. He restored some and left others as they were." Appropriately, all of the cars in the Baillon Collection will be displayed at the Retromobile Salon in Paris next February in exactly the state they were found. "Visitors will be able to share in our emotion, much like that experienced by Lord Carrington and Howard Carter entering Tutankhamun’s tomb," said Lamoure. "Artcurial will put on show the magic of these sixty mysterious mechanical creatures, like a giant work of art: the unrealized dream of its owner brought back to life." "These sleeping Beauties are clothed in the precious patina of time gone by. A collection like this can’t fail to arouse the passions of those who love automobiles, as well as art and history enthusiasts", said Novikoff who accompanied Lamoure on that initial walk through. We've cherry-picked some of the cars which will be available for viewing at Retromobile in February for a brief rundown. Talbot Lago T26 Record coupé by Saoutchik Artcurial's Matthieu Lamoure was interviewed at the announcement of the finding of this collection, and one of the true finds amongst the farm sheds was this Talbot Lago T26 Record coupé by one of the all-time great coachbuilders, Russian-born designer Jacques Saoutchik. We've previously written about Saoutchik's flamboyant design. "We had already spotted a few gems during our first tour of the machines, and making an inventory made us start to comprehend the extent of the collection. One mythical coachbuilder after another", said Lamoure. "I must tell you about the three Talbots designed by Saoutchik: despite their condition, it was impossible not to fall in love with the lines of theTalbot Lago T26 Record coupé by Saoutchik. It is like a work of art by Brancusi." "When we contacted the marque historian to tell him we had found this car, he couldn’t believe it! Once he had recovered from the shock, he bombarded us with questions." Probably the most powerful production car available at the time it was built, this 170 hp car will sell for a lot of money and will be worth a great deal more when it is fully restored. Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe by Saoutchik Yet another Saoutchik masterpiece found by Artcurial is this Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe. Coachbuild is perhaps the most knowledgeable of internet resources on the Grand Automotive Masters, with detailed information on Jacques Saoutchik, the T26 Grand Sports Coupe and some wonderful galleries of examples of the various incarnations of the cars available here and here. One of these models crossed the auction block at an RM Auction at Monterey (Pebble Beach) in 2007, failing to meet reserve with a high bid of US$535,000. That's it above, and when I see one in its full glory, I am torn between hoping it is purchased and restored, or exhibited as a work of art in its current condition as suggested by Artcurial's Pierre Novikoff. Hispano Suiza H6B Cabriolet with body by Millon & Guiet An Hispano Suiza H6B Cabriolet with body by famous French coachbuilder Millon & Guiet, which built bespoke carriages for the wealthy for half a century before beginning to produce bespoke automobile coachwork in 1895. The car was designed by the much celebrated Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt, who was nominated for the Car Engineer of the Century specifically for his design of the H6. It was Birkigt's remarkable engineering expertise which gave Hispano Suiza its reputation for speed and reliability, as his WWI aircraft engines became legendary for those very same qualities – qualities highly prized in wartime. Following WWI, the Hispano Suiza H6 became the automobile of choice for European royalty and the hyper-wealthy, as it was amongst the most costly vehicles available. For an indication of what this car might look like when it is purchased at retromobile and restored to its former glory, take a look at this Hispano Suiza enthusiast page. Maserati A6G 2000 Gran Sport Frua Artcurial is currently working towards valuing all of the cars found on the French farm, though at this point it has only placed an estimate on two of the cars: the Ferrari 250 GT California and this Maserati A6G 2000 Gran Sport Frua, one of just three Artcurial claims were made. It is estimated to be worth more between €800,000 and €1,200,000 (US$1 to 1.5 million). Bugatti Type 57 Ventoux The Bugatti Type 57 was offered in numerous body styles from the factory: Galibier, Stelvio, Aravis, Ventoux and Atalante, and the Atlantic. In addition, many of the famous coachbuilders created their own interpretation. The most that a T57 has sold for at auction is US$8,745,000 which was achieved by Gooding & Co at Pebble Beach in 2013 for a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante. Goodings also sold another 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante Coupe for US$7,920,000 in 2008. Yet another 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante was sold by Bonhams at Retromobile in 2008 for US$4,408,575. In May 2010, Gooding & Company handled the private sale of a 1936 Bugatti 57SC Atlantic for more than $30 million, which at the time, was believed to be the highest price ever paid for a car. Neither the exact price nor the buyer were disclosed, and it's interesting to note that so beloved are many of the cars in the collector stratosphere that owners would often rather see the car go to a good home than to the buyer with the most money. The Atlantic was derived from Bugatti’s fabled prototype Aerolithe Electron Coupé (pictured above), which was shown at the 1935 Paris Auto Salon. Only three Atlantics were made, and only two still exist (the other is owned by fashion designer Ralph Lauren). Several Bugatti Aerolithe Electron Coupé concept cars are believed to have been built, but no-one knows where they are, or at least they're not telling anyone. If one of those might surface one day, it would command a world record price. Sadly, no matter how good the restoration of this Ventoux, it won't be worth as much as the Aerolithe, Atlantic or Atalante, despite being basically the same 3,257 cc DOHC inline eight-cylinder engine, four-speed manual transmission, chassis and running gear under the skin. This (above) is what a similar Ventoux looked like back in the day, and a similar Ventoux recently sold fully restored by RM Auctions for £324,800 (US$510,000). In 2011, an unrestored "barn find" 1938 Bugatti Type 57 Series 3 Ventoux Coupe (pictured above) was sold by Bonhams for US$337,000. The full list of cars discovered at the farm: Amilcar C6 berline Amilcar CGS Ariès coach Auto Union cabriolet Avions Voisin C3 Avions Voisin limousine C15 Avions Voisin C7 par Gallé Ballot 8 cyl limousine Barré torpédo Berliet coupé chauffeur Berliet Type VIGB 10HP Taxi Landaulet Bugatti Type 57 Ventoux Citroën Trèfle Delage D6 Delage D8 coach Delahaye 135 cabriolet Faget Varnet Delahaye 135 coach Chapron Delahaye 235 coach Chapron Delahaye 235 coach Chapron Delahaye 235 coupé Chapron Delahaye Type 43 coupé chauffeur Delahaye GFA 148 L Delahaye Type 43 camionnette Delaunay Belleville limousine VL8 Facel Vega Excellence Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider Ferrari 308 GTS Ferrari 400 Ferrari Mondial 3.2L cabriolet Hispano Suiza H6B cabriolet Millon-Guiet Hotchkiss cabriolet Innocenti S cabriolet Jaguar type S 3.4 L La Buire 12 A Lagonda LG45 cabriolet Lancia Thema 8.32 Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 plateau Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 torpédo par Grumman Lorraine-Dietrich torpédo Maserati A6G 2000 Gran Sport Frua Mathis cabriolet Packard cabriolet Super Eight Panhard-Levassor Dynamic berline X77 Panhard-Levassor Dynamic coupé X76 Panhard-Levassor limousine X72 Porsche 356 SC ex-Sonauto Renault AX torpédo Renault Vivastella cabriolet Sandford cyclecar 3 roues Singer Cabriolet Talbot Lago 11/6 cabriolet Talbot Lago Baby cabriolet Talbot Lago Baby cabriolet Talbot Lago Cadette 11 Talbot Lago coach Talbot Lago T26 coach Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport coupé Saoutchik Talbot Lago T26 Record coupé Saoutchik Talbot Lago T26 cabriolet Saoutchik ex-King Farouk This unique collection will be offered for sale on February 6, 2015, at the Retromobile Salon. As of now, Artcurial has only sold one car in the top 100 cars of all time – a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider owned by one of the world's most famous playboys, noted screenwriter, film director/producer, author and actor Roger Vadim. The car sold for €4,507,104 (US$5,907,325) at Retromobile in 2012. Early in February (2015), that will undoubtedly become two cars. More than that, Artcurial's role in this burgeoning market appears set to become much greater thanks to its role in bringing this collection to light.

Should dogs be citizens? It’s not as crazy as you think. (hmmm, lol, omg)

 

What if domestic animals — pets such as dogs and cats as well livestock like cows and chickens — were granted citizenship rights? That may sound like a crazy question, but Canadian philosopher Will Kymlicka thinks it's a critically important one. Kymlicka, a professor at Queen's University, is a well-regarded figure in modern political philosophy. He's also the author, along with writer Sue Donaldson, of Zoopolis, a book making the case for animal citizenship. Their basic premise is simple: animals are already part of our society, as pets and work animals, therefore we should formally recognize them as such. That's not just a head-in-the-clouds thought experiment. We already have basic laws forbidding animal abuse and regulating industrial slaughterhouses. But, as anyone who has visited an animal shelter or thought about the ethics of what they eat can attest, we as a society have not come anywhere close to solving the problem of animal mistreatment. If we really want to improve animals' lives, Kymlicka and Donaldson argue, we need to stop thinking in terms of merely treating animals better. Rather, we need to acknowledge on a fundamental level that animals are a part of society and deserve to be treated as such. That leads you, however improbable it might sound, to citizenship. Kymlicka and I chatted over the phone about why he believes we ought to make animals citizens, how that would work in practice, and what a world in which animals have equal rights would look like. What follows is a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity. Zack Beauchamp: The idea of animal citizenship sounds a bit strange. What does it mean for a dog to be a citizen? What rights do they get? Will Kymlicka: The first idea is that we've brought dogs and other domesticated animals into our society. That's a decision we have made — to domesticate animals — and the very term domestication indicates that's process of incorporating them into our world. So we need to ask: what do we owe them in virtue of the fact that we've brought them into our world? We owe them membership. We need to recognize domesticated animals as members of our society. And citizenship is the legal and political term that we have historically used to recognize membership. The ways in which humans stake claims to membership is by staking claims to citizenship. It's our legal and political tool for recognizing it. We can't go around eating our co-citizens That's the starting point: domesticated animals are members [of our society], and citizenship is our legal and political tool for recognizing membership. So what are the characteristics of citizenship in the human case, and to what extent can the work in the case of animals? Citizenship in the human case is typically thought of a set of rights and responsibilities. [Co-author Donaldson and I] go through each one of them and ask when they're applicable to animals. We end up arguing that yes, most of them are [applicable to animals], quite directly. ZB: What about rights like voting and free speech? WK: I would back up a bit. We need to think about what the purpose of these rights are. In the case of the right to vote, the idea is twofold. Voting is, first of all, a way of making sure that our interests get counted in the public good. Because we're members of society, we have a right for our interests to be included in the common good, the national interest, whatever you call it. Secondly, it's a way for individuals to be active in shaping the common rules that we live under. Habermas calls this "coauthoring the laws that govern us." We need to see voting as a mechanism to fulfill these deeper ideas. The right to vote doesn't apply to animals, but the deeper ideas behind them do. So we need to find mechanisms that ensure their interests are counted in determining the public good. And we need a way for them to have a say in matters that affect them. It won't be through voting, so we need to find other ways of soliciting and responding to their preferences. Blosom is the world's tallest cow, standing at 6'4". (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/MCT/Getty Images) That may sound difficult, even a bit mysterious. But we've been confronted with that challenge already in the human case. There are going to be some human for whom voting is not the right mechanism for achieving these deeper goals. [Take] citizenship for people with cognitive disabilities. Giving them a vote is not necessarily going to mean anything to them. But we need to find other ways of enabling them to have a say over their lives. In the cognitive disability literature, there's a discussion about how you can bring choices, meaningful choices into people's lives so that they're able to experiment with different possible activities and relationships. We think a lot of that stuff is applicable to animals. So I wouldn't get hung up on voting. We need to think about it as a mechanism, and even in the human case we're going to need more than just voting to achieve this deeper ideal of counting interests and enabling people to participate. ZB: So what kind of mechanisms would be appropriate to represent the interests of domesticated animals in society? WK: I don't think any country has figured this out. But in some countries, provinces, states, and cities, you have animal advocates — people who are authorized to sit in at various decision-making bodies and to speak on behalf of animals. In the Netherlands and several other European countries, they have animal rights parties. [The Dutch] party has actually elected representatives in the national parliament. This is a feasible option in countries that have proportional representation. Marianne Thieme, leader of the Dutch Party for the Animals, celebrates her party's first election to the Dutch parliament in 2006. (Michel Porro/Getty Images And those animal rights parties — they have elected members both in the national legislature and the European Parliament — are very effective spokespersons for the interests of animals. You could also think about dedicated animal prosecutors and police officers. You could think of these all as first steps towards rethinking our legal and political system to find places where we can ensure animal interests are counted. But, as I said, those are very modest first steps, as no country has embraced the idea that domesticated animals are members in a full sense. ZB: So what's wrong with just saying we'll take a number of steps to protect animal rights without going so far as to declare them citizens? WK: As I've said, the core of our theory is the idea of membership. It's a rich concept if you think about it seriously: it's the idea that domestic animals belong here. It's where we disagree with one strain of animal rights theory, which says we should extinguish domesticated animals because it was a mistake ever to bring them in. We instead need to ask "what kind of relationships do they want to have with us?" We need to create a shared interspecies society which is responsive to the interests of both its human and animal members. That means that it's not just a question of how you ensure that animals aren't abused. If we view them as members of society — it's as much their society as ours — then it changes the perspective 180 degrees. The question is no longer "how do we make sure they're not so badly treated?" We instead need to ask "what kind of relationships do they want to have with us?" That's really a radical question. It's one we've never really bothered to ask. I think there are some domesticated animals that enjoy activities with us — I think that's clearest in the case of dogs, but it's also true of other domesticated animals whose lives are enriched by being part of interspecies activities with us. But there are other animals who, if we took what they wanted seriously, would probably choose to have less and less to do with us. I think this would be true of horses. ZB: Presumably, research into animal psychology can help answer those questions. But if we're just thinking about what domestic animals want on a basic level, the first thing has got to be "not to be killed." So we'd have to ban meat-eating. WK: Yeah. We can't go around eating our co-citizens. In the animal rights circle, people sometimes debate whether it's permissible to scavenge — eat roadkill, for example. Is it OK to consume animal products when humans are not responsible for their death? I think that's so hypothetical that it's not really worth spending time on it. I think we should have a flat commitment to veganism and not get bogged down in a debate about the ethics of eating roadkill. ZB: Veganism, not vegetarianism? WK: From my point of view, the dairy industry is as bad for animals as the meat industry. In fact, it's just the same industry. ZB: Could it be reformed, though? Presumably, you could think of a milk cow as an employed citizen. WK: Yeah! We're very interested in the idea of animals as workers. I think it's true that, in a future animal rights utopia, that there might be circumstances under which our animal co-citizens would produce beyond what they need for their own well being. These could become available, on fair terms, for humans. But we don't think it would be economically sustainable — you only get milk from cows when they're pregnant. The only way that it would be profitable to have dairy would involve violating the fundamental citizenship rights of the cows. But workers — this is actually what I'm most interested in pursuing. It's an important part of membership in a society that we contribute to it. It's an important way in which we express our membership and on which we evaluate other people's contribution to the common good. Work is one fundamental component to that for many people. A sniffer dog working at the Hague. (Freek van den Bergh/AFP/Getty Images) Can we imagine forms of work that are non-exploitative but are, indeed, expressions of membership? Genuine, full membership? We've been thinking about cases like, say, sniffer dogs at an airport. Here you have a dog with a human, they're both working. I see no reason why that couldn't be, in principle, an expression of membership for both. But, if it's to be consistent with our citizenship model, there would also have to be workers' rights. The sniffer dog would need maximum working hours, a right to a safe environment, the right to a retirement, the right to disability pensions, and so on and so forth. ZB: So what counts as a domesticated animal? What about an animal that's been captured in the wild, would it get citizenship as well? WK: Citizenship is for animals who have been bred selectively over generations to be part of our society. We distinguish that very sharply from what we call exotic pets: wild animals that have been captured to be sold as pets. That's totally wrong. We have no right to capture them, we have no right to sell them, no right to keep them as pets. There should be a complete prohibition on the capturing of wild animals for any purpose. ZB: So how do we treat wild animals in general? Would they be something like foreign nationals or nations? WK: Most animals are not domesticated, but we distinguish two subgroups of non-domesticated animals. One are what's called truly wild or wilderness animals. They avoid us so far as they can, and they're trying as best as they can to live on their own habitat. We should view them as forming their own distinct peoples and nations with their own rights to territory. It's their territory, not ours, so we don't aggress on their territory, we don't settle it, we don't colonize it. The relationship should be modeled on something like international law. Pictured: liminal animals. (Lorri Carter/Shutterstock) The second subgroup are what we call liminal animals: to simplify, you can think of them as urban wildlife. Raccoons, pigeons, rats, mice — the non-domesticated animals that live among us, often in our homes. We can't just leave them alone like truly wild animals. We need to find a way of living in close physical proximity with them, but because they're not domesticated they can't cooperate with us. And that's what makes a meaningful idea of membership — of citizenship — possible. So we think these liminal animals are denizens, not citizens. They have residency, and we've got to accept that they have the right to live here among us. Most of these animals no longer have anywhere else to live. That means learning to tolerate them, but duties of tolerant existence are less than duties of citizenship. (HMMMMMMM – LOL – OMG – )

New algorithm a Christmas gift to 3-D printing, and the environment

 

Just in time for Christmas, Simon Fraser University computing science professor Richard Zhang reveals how to print a 3D Christmas tree efficiently and with zero material waste, using the world's first algorithm for automatically decomposing a 3D object into what are called pyramidal parts. A pyramidal part has a flat base with the remainder of the shape forming upwards over the base with no overhangs, much like a pyramid. A pyramidal shape is optimal for 3D printing because it incurs no material waste and saves print time. The algorithm promises to become a big deal in the world of 3D printing, and also has applications for designing molds and for casting. Zhang, a computer graphics expert specializing in geometric modeling and processing, developed the algorithm with PhD candidate Ruizhen Hu, an international student from Zhejiang University in China. Their research paper, "Approximate Pyramidal Shape Decomposition," was published this month in ACM Transaction on Graphics. As well, Hu presented their research at a major graphics conference, SIGGRAPH Asia, this month in Shenzhen, China. In 3D printing, the printer deposits melted plastic layer by layer in a bottom-up fashion. If the shape has an overhang, such as a tree branch, extra material has to be printed beneath it as support. This extra plastic is waste material and must be removed, which can be time consuming and difficult. And removing waste material that supports an object's hollow interior or tiny fragile parts, like the star atop a Christmas tree, can be almost impossible without causing breakage. "Coming up with a practical algorithm to decompose 3D objects into the smallest possible number of pyramidal parts was quite a challenge," says Zhang. "Importantly, it is impractical for most real-world objects to be broken into exactly pyramidal parts since this would result in too many parts," he says. "Ruizhen came up with a really clever way of transforming the problem to obtain an effective solution." The new algorithm partitions the object into a small number of nearly pyramidal parts that can be 3D-printed with little or no material waste. These printed parts can then be glued together to form the finished object. The Christmas tree, for example, is divided in half for fabrication, and then glued together. In molding and casting, the ideas are similar, says Zhang. "If the molded or cast parts are pyramidal, then removing the mold or cast after fabrication would not result in any breakage," he says. In keeping with the Christmas theme, he suggests chocolatiers could use the algorithm to design chocolate molds for Christmas trees or reindeer. The research is supported by NSERC and GRAND NCE funding. The first year of Ruizhen Hu's SFU visit was supported by the China Scholarship Council. The 3D printer was purchased for the GrUVi lab, through an NSERC Research, Tools and Instruments (RTI) grant.

Definition of the Brain - II

 

Nós realmente pensamos… O que não fazemos é usá-los adequadamente. (os pensamentos….)   E isso é um detalhe que a MEDITAÇÃO resolve. O grande problema é que pouquíssimos de nós tem a capacidade ou o dom nato de treinar o cérebro para que ele atinja um alto grau de coerência e harmonia com a meditação, e assim fazer com que os nossos pensamentos tomem um rumo correto, frutuoso e estável.   José S de Melo

Decoding Virus-Host Interactions in the Oxygen-Starved Ocean

 

Steven Hallam’s team at the University of British Columbia collecting water samples from Saanich Inlet over the course of a single day. From the samples, SUP05 bacterial cells were sequenced and analyzed to understand how their interactions with viruses influences their ecology and potentially affects the biogeochemistry of the ocean. (Courtesy of Hallam lab) For multicellular life—plants and animals—to thrive in the oceans, there must be enough dissolved oxygen in the water. In certain coastal areas, extreme oxygen-starvation produces “dead zones” that decimate marine fisheries and destroy food web structure. As dissolved oxygen levels decline, energy is increasingly diverted away from multicellular life into microbial community metabolism resulting in impacts on the ecology and biogeochemistry of the ocean. Over the past 50 years, oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) have expanded due to climate change and increased waste run-off from farms and cities. There are currently more than 500 OMZs worldwide, encompassing roughly eight percent of ocean volume that is considered oxygen-starved. Microbial community metabolism in these oxygen-starved waters directly impacts nutrient and energy conversion processes, including the production and consumption of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Knowing how microbial interactions change in response to OMZ expansion is crucial to understanding the organizing principles underlying coupled nutrient and biogeochemical cycling in the ocean and the balance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), a DOE Office of Science user facility, Steven Hallam’s lab at the University of British Columbia has been studying a microbial community dominated by SUP05, an currently uncultivated group of microorganisms, related to gill symbionts of deep-sea clams and mussels that thrive in the most oxygen-starved regions of the water column. In a recent study published online August 29, 2014 in the journal eLife, Hallam teamed up with another DOE JGI collaborator, Matt Sullivan of the University of Arizona, to investigate marine viruses infecting SUP05 to better understand how viral infection influences SUP05 ecology and metabolic potential. “This study represents the first of its kind, exploiting the unique strength of single-cell genomics to explore virus-host dynamics, including viral co-infections, in a completely cultivation-independent manner,” noted Tanja Woyke, head of the DOE JGI Microbial Program and co-author of this study. “The resulting data provide a very robust foundation for future experimental work,” she added. Woyke is also excited about the expansion of this work into dark matter branches of the microbial tree of life. In work supported by a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator Award, postdoctoral researcher Simon Roux led an effort to develop a novel method to identify viral sequences in microbial datasets, an approach that combines single-cell genomics with viral and microbial metagenomic sequencing to explore virus-host interaction dynamics over space and time. A principal conclusion of this study is that viruses appear to be much more important to marine microbial ecology below sunlit surface waters than earlier suspected. The Hallam lab studies the SUP05-dominated community in Saanich Inlet, a seasonally anoxic (oxygen deficient) fjord on the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada that is a natural laboratory for studying OMZs. Recent studies in Saanich Inlet estimated that SUP05 bacteria could be responsible for as much as five percent of global primary productivity, making them key players in ocean carbon cycling. “Whenever you sequence a genome from an isolate or single-cell, you’re potentially sequencing infecting viral genomes at the same time, and for a long time those viral sequences have been ignored given the focus on cellular genomes,” Hallam said.  “Through the single-cell genomics approach, we’re able to define lineage-specific infections in natural populations of uncultivated microorganisms opening an unprecedented window on microbial and viral evolution and ecology.” The Hallam Lab single-cell sequencing efforts were supported by grants from the Tula Foundation, the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation and the Ambrose Monell Foundation. Map of Saanich Inlet with water depths denoted in color. (Courtesy of Hallam lab) In the study, the team collected several thousand individual bacterial cells from three depths spanning the Saanich Inlet oxygen gradient (at 100, 150 and 185 meters). Nearly 130 SUP05 single amplified genomes (SAGs) were recovered from this collection by the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and sequenced at the Genome Sciences Centre in Vancouver British Columbia. The sequences were then assembled, quality checked and annotated at the DOE JGI. Forty-two of the sequenced SUP05 SAGs were found to contain a total of 69 viruses representing five new genera. These viral sequences provided new reference genomes and enabled a number of eco-evolutionary inquiries including lineage-specific viral infection and mortality estimates, biogeography and accessory metabolic gene potential. For example, using the new viral genomes as “hooks,” Roux and colleagues queried 186 viral and microbial metagenomic datasets, many of which were generated through DOE JGI Community Science Program (CSP), to demonstrate that while SUP05 viruses were locally restricted to OMZs they persisted in the environment over several years, with some viruses evolving over that time interval. “At this point, there’s a lot of microbial community sequence data out there, but it’s a lot harder to get the viral sequence data,” said Sullivan. “What we’ve done is leverage the microbial datasets being generated for microbial ecology and automate the process to be able to see the viruses in that data. Here, the results surprised us as it appears that while viruses in sunlit surface ocean waters kill about a third of cells and keep organic carbon available for smaller cells, the same appears to be true in OMZs – even hundreds or thousands of meters below the ocean’s surface. Further, the nature of the data mean that we can, for the first time, look at a single group’s viral mortality, not just community-wide numbers. This is critical for specifically examining virus-host interaction dynamics, and reveals that viruses are playing a big role in OMZ biogeochemistry.” SUP05 breathes nitrate and exhales nitrous oxide. This respiratory process is coupled to carbon dioxide fixation and the removal of toxic hydrogen sulfide. The presence of SUP05 in non-sulfidic oxygen minimum zones prompted the description of a cryptic sulfur cycle linking the metabolic activities of SUP05 with other microorganisms involved in nitrogen and sulfur cycling. “What we’re ultimately interested in understanding is how different microbial groups interact to drive carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycling in OMZs,” said Hallam. “SUP05 is a hub for metabolic coupling in OMZs. By studying viruses that infect SUP05, we’re beginning to recognize that viruses can alter the network properties of microbial communities with resulting feedback on nutrient and energy conversion processes, including the production and consumption of climate active gases. That’s where one interesting twist to the story can be found. Given that a third of SUP05 cells may be infected at any given time, to what extent is carbon fixation and energy metabolism modulated by viral lysis or reprogramming?” For the Hallam lab, the research vessel MSV John Strickland provides an ideal sampling platform in the still waters of Saanich Inlet. (Courtesy of Hallam lab) While the team is still trying to figure out how much carbon SUP05 is fixing, and how much of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide the bacteria are releasing, Hallam pointed out that the work has provided tools allowing researchers to look at these interactions in a way that could lead to better ecosystem models. Sullivan noted that another research direction is to “go global and go dark,” scaling up the datasets they’re looking at to explore both viral and microbial dark matter. Both Hallam and Sullivan credit their collaborations with the DOE JGI, particularly through the CSP, for both the opportunity and the capability to study virus-host interactions in OMZs. “These CSP opportunities are critical for building community resources. For example, when researchers isolate a new virus and want to know whether it exists in the world and where, it helps to compare its genome to available viral metagenomic datasets. Right now, at least half of these came out of two of our CSP projects to form the ‘Pacific Ocean Virome’ dataset,” Sullivan said. “For viromics, at the moment this is the only systematically and quantitatively prepared dataset available, so the results provide a strong basis for making ecological inferences. This scale of data is critical, and such CSP deliverables are fundamental for the viral ecology community or anyone who wants to contextualize their favorite new virus.” Hallam noted that through the CSP program, his lab has been able to generate 340 human genome equivalents of time-resolved microbial metagenome, and metatranscriptome data from OMZs. “That’s the largest data set in existence specifically focused on OMZs,” Hallam said. “The resulting open access archive promotes integrated science. When we wrote those initial CSP proposals, we didn’t envision this kind of synthesis. However having the archive in place gives us the benefit of hindsight as new scientific questions come into focus.” Hallam also said that the data their labs have generated through the CSP has enabled them to conduct collaborative projects with the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science user facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “Genomic and transcriptomic data generated in one national lab is empowering hypothesis-driven research in another focused on proteomic and metabolomic information. These collaborations between people, projects and platforms is opening the floodgates for systems biology in natural and engineered ecosystems in new and unexpected ways.” Share this: The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, User Facility of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory supported by the DOE Office of Science, is committed to advancing genomics in support of DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup. DOE JGI, headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., provides integrated high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis that enable systems-based scientific approaches to these challenges. Follow @doe_jgi on Twitter. DOE’s Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov. Filed Under: News Releases