Presented by Kodner Galleries.
On November 6, 2022 Kodner Galleries, Dania Beach Florida debuted its first Exotic Cars & Luxury Timepieces auction with the automotive collection of the late Barry Amstell of Boca Raton together with a collection of men’s luxury watches. Total sales for fifty-four auction lots reached $4,589,200.00 (not including buyer’s premium) with Russ Kodner, President of Kodner Galleries at the podium as auctioneer.
This exceptional collection of twenty-four cars, three motorcycles, two vintage gas pumps and a mini-Corvette was curated over seventeen years and kept on display as works of art in a custom commercial garage together with automobile memorabilia and collectibles including signage, more gas pumps, car and truck models, engine models, traffic lights and much more which Kodner will offer at a later auction date. Also in the auction were twenty-four high-end men’s watches by the very finest brands, Patek Philippe, F.P. Journe, Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille, Rolex and more. The auction was featured on duPont Registry and Hemmings and received wide-ranging local media coverage in the South Florida area.
The auction bidding was driven largely by phone bids from collectors and dealers who previewed the cars in Boca and who had pre-registered with the gallery well in advance of the Sunday afternoon auction date. In total there were two hundred and fifty-four phone bids with several bidders successfully bidding on multiple cars. One happy bidder won three of four of the vintage Shelby GTs, a Corvette and a Ferrari.
Lot 1, a 2005 Ford GT, red with white stripes and a mere 148 miles, jumpstarted the auction with ten phone bidders aggressively bidding this amazing car to a closing hammer price of $401,500.00. Lot 6, the highly coveted 1963 Corvette Sting Ray with the split rear window in Riverside Red brought $181,500.00. Lot 8, a 1965 Ford Shelby GT350, one of four GTs in the auction, sold for $330,000.00. Lot 10, a 1992 Jaguar XJ220, the rarest car in the auction with only two hundred seventy-five made and still looking extremely modern, sold for $506,000.00. Lot 12, the 1965 Shelby AC Cobra, and the highlight of the auction, generated lots of interest and exuberant phone bidding, brought $814,000.00. Curiously, the car garnering the most attention and phone bidders was a 1981 DMC DeLorean “Back to the Future” replica car selling for $90,200.00 and well above the $50,000-$70,000 pre-auction estimate. (Prices quoted include buyer’s premium.)
Kodner Galleries bi-monthly auctions consistently feature fine estate jewelry and timepieces but as the exotic car and luxury watch markets overlap it seemed a natural for Kodner Galleries to combine both for this special auction. Standouts in the November 6 auction were Lot 31, a F.P. Journe Octa Celendrier selling at $86,250.00; Lot 49 Patek Philippe Nautilus 5712/1A bringing $115,000.00; Lot 50 Richard Mille RM-11-03 hammered down at $310,500.00 and Lot 51 Patek Philippe Nautilus 5980/R selling at $184,000.00 (prices include buyer’s premium).
The auction was indeed a great success for Russ Kodner and Kodner Galleries. The gallery is already in discussions to represent more car collectors in future Kodner Galleries auctions. Stay tuned. For information, please contact Kodner at info@kodner.com or by visiting the website at Kodner.com
