Bonhams is one of the heavy hitters of the Monterey auction week, with a lineup of six- and seven-figure cars that includes Full Classics, European exotics, race cars, and other collectible vehicles. Its preview and one-day sale took place on Friday, August 18, at the Quail Lodge and Golf Club’s West Field in Carmel, California.
On the surface, Bonhams appeared to have done amazingly well with the 2023 edition of its Quail Lodge sale, raking in $55.2 million against last year’s $27.9 million. A closer look, though, shows that more than half of the total came from the $30.3 million sale of a single car, a 1967 Ferrari 412P Berlinetta race car that was the star of the auction week. The remaining 79 sold lots amounted to $24.9 million. Subtracting the 412P from the results brings the average sale price down to from $690,287 to $316,049, still a big number by any measure.
Bonhams has been cutting back the number of lots it offers in Monterey in recent years, going from 219 in 2019 to this year’s 109. The strategy must be working because the average sale price has
