THERE'S no doubt Steve McQueen was a proper bike nut. He made some half-decent movies too. But the craziness for all things McQueen seems to be drawing every two-wheeler he ever sat on to the auction block - where they're fetching ludicrous prices.
We've already seen the sale of McQueen’s 1914 Indian as well as at least three 1970 and 1971 Husqvarnas claiming to be his. Or maybe it’s the same bike just going from one auction house to another. Oh, and there’s been an ex-McQueen Rickman Metisse and a Scott Squirrel (surely one of the best-named bikes ever built) from McQueen’s collection up for sale, too.
And yesterday (January 9) another two went under the hammer, together fetching £125,000.
The first, a 1923 Indian Big Chief with Princess sidecar, owned by McQueen and restored by Von Dutch, making it about as cool as a sidecar outfit can be, sold for £76,435. The estimate had been just £30,000-£43,000.
The second, a 1935 Indian Chief which was sold as part of the Steve McQueen estate in 1984, fetched £48,834 against an estimate of £43,000-£55,000.
Other interesting lots included a still-in-the-crate, never-even-assembled 1989 Honda GB500, which sold for £8,371, and a Corgi folding scooter which went for £1,011, nearly double the estimate of £370-£610.
A complete wreck of a scrambler-style Ducati 350 Desmo went for £1,744. With Ducati on the verge of launching a new ‘Scrambler’ badged machine, the originals could be the focus of a lot more attention by the end of this year.
Check out the full results.
THERE'S no doubt Steve McQueen was a proper bike nut. He made some half-decent movies too. But the craziness for all things McQueen seems to be drawing every two-wheeler he ever sat on to the auction block - where they're fetching ludicrous prices.
We've already seen the sale of McQueen’s 1914 Indian as well as at least three 1970 and 1971 Husqvarnas claiming to be his. Or maybe it’s the same bike just going from one auction house to another. Oh, and there’s been a Rickman Metisse and Scott Squirrel (surely one of the best-named bikes ever built) from McQueen’s collection up for sale, too.
And yesterday (January 9) another two went under the hammer at the Bonhams Las Vegas Motorcycle auction, together fetching £125,000.
The first, a 1923 Indian Big Chief with Princess sidecar, owned by McQueen and restored by Von Dutch, making it about as cool as a sidecar outfit can be, sold for £76,435. The estimate had been just £30,000-£43,000.
The second, a 1935 Indian Chief which was sold as part of the Steve McQueen estate in 1984, fetched £48,834 against an estimate of £43,000-£55,000.
Other interesting lots included a 1978 Ducati 900 NCR which sold for £106,464.
A still-in-the-crate, never-even-assembled 1989 Honda GB500, fetched £8,371 and a Corgi folding scooter went for £1,011, nearly double the estimate of £370-£610.
A complete wreck of a scrambler-style Ducati 350 Desmo went for £1,744. With Ducati on the verge of launching a new ‘Scrambler’ badged machine, the originals could be the focus of a lot more attention by the end of this year.
Check out the full results.
