Look at all the familial love!
A 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO, what many refer to as the Mona Lisa of Ferraris, is at the center of a bitter legal battle among siblings. With under 40 ever made for the 1962-1964 model years, values for these classic Italian sports cars are high enough to make even well-heeled collectors feel completely overwhelmed at the idea of ever owning one. With that kind of money at stake, it’s easy to see why the children of the late Pierre Bardinon are now at each other’s throats.
Check out the Ferrari 250 GTO which kept Pink Floyd afloat here.
Patrick, who is Bardinon’s youngest son, sold the Ferrari 250 GTO to a car collector in Taiwan for a whopping $48 million back in 2014. The problem is Patrick didn’t get permission from his little brother, Jean-Francois, or his older sister, Anne. That’s when they got the attorneys involved, so naturally the resolution took years and cost all three of them a small fortune, so it was totally worth not settling out of court.
The defense Patrick used was that the Ferrari 250 GTO had been gifted to him by his father. That was news to his brother and sister, plus from reports it sounds like there was no actual evidence of the gifting.
This case went all the way to the Cour de Cassation, the highest court in France, which didn’t rule in favor of Patrick. In fact, he’s been ordered to reimburse his siblings fully for the sale of the classic Ferrari.
Pierre Baridon was a French luxury goods tycoon. The man amassed quite the fortune, but his crown jewel was an impressive collection of Ferraris. While the 250 GTO is the most impressive of the bunch, those collectable cars have proven to be a vipers’ nest of legal problems as fights have raged over who inherits which ones.
