The Christmas Present

Now here's a nice story that surfaced less than two weeks ago. Read it all to be amazed like me.

Short known history.... The car was bought for Christmas in 1965, a wife wanted to surprise her husband and as far as Christmas presents go, it’s hard to beat finding a brand new Porsche under the tree, there’s no doubt that this car’s original owner was thrilled to find it parked in his driveway on Christmas morning. 


It was sold to the second owner in 1986 and was stored away with less than 50.000 kilometers, where it was recently 'barn' found after a sleep of almost 30 years. 


Two weeks ago RM Sotheby's Paris put it up for auction as a low milage sleeping beauty in need of a tender loving care restoration as lot #133.  


But..... Here's the cliffhanger!
Half an hour before the auction they discovered on the original garage documentation who the wife was who gave her man this Christmas present. 
It was our former Dutch Queen Beatrix who gave it to her fiancé Prince Claus von Armsberg!
This news more than doubled the auction price and the car was sold to a new Dutch owner (no name for privacy reasons revealed)


A few hours after the auction a dear friend of mine called me and told me this story. He - Bob Hahn Classic Porsches - was assigned to do the nut and bolt restoration in the coming 18 months as he's the best Porsche restore shop in Holland. 
He asked me if I could do the photography of this unique project from start to finish and guess what... of course I wanted to be part of it.


I requested not to clean the car before transport from Paris to Holland, but to leave all the original dust on it as it was found till I had the chance to shoot the 'before' restoration status and complete it with a second shot next year when it's back in new status.


These are some of the shots I made! (in extra too) You can feel the 30 year dust patina


To be continued....


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