Unique Barn Find Citroën Rosalie Van at French Auction

Sunday, January 21, 2019 was quite a day in Tarbes, France (near the border of Spain). An exceptional collection of 81 cars, albeit in rather neglected condition, were sold by the French firm Adam Encheres. They were owned by Henri Ruggieri, a secret and lonely man who died in Pau, (just 40 kms northwest of Tarbes), in 2018. He was described as a “compulsive buyer” who apparently never used most of the vehicles — instead, leaving them scattered around five different locations. They were recovered from barns and fields, hidden beneath rubbish and under overgrowth. To ensure they weren’t stolen, Ruggieri would remove a component from each, and from the appearance of most, neglect them from that point on.

An astounding find in the collection was this 1937 Citroën Rosalie van. Very rare indeed with custom bodywork by Currus in Paris. Powered by a 4 cylinder inline 1,766 cc diesel engine with drum brakes on all 4 wheels. At one point in its life, it had been used on a vineyard property in the region of Marseille. Now it shows an old product plate of Magarian, a defunct furniture factory once in Saint Marcel (Bouches du Rhône). The Rosalie van was in rough but restorable shape and commanded a sale price of 8.400 €.

There were also some other Citroëns in the auction in rather ratty condition:

The star of the auction was a battered 1968 Lamborghini P400 Miura (number 118 of just 275 built) that need a full restoration but still managed to sell for 560.000 €.

There were many North American and other interesting finds in the collection. View a full list and the auction results here: https://docs.prod-indb.io/2019/01/21/102951_554393427_5ac8b507c3915f10af50d273460b606d.pdf