SHARON, Connecticut — A 1958 Ferrari 250GT Cabriolet Series 1 Pininfarina, owned and shown for the past eight years by a collector here, turns out to have been stolen from a warehouse in Spain in 1993. The victim of the theft, who lives in Switzerland, had refused an insurance settlement on the grounds that he was sure such a rare car would turn up somewhere — and he turns out to have been correct.
The surprising part of the story is how Paul Hallingby of Sharon could have purchased the car and even shown it in such high-profile events as the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance — where it was named Most Outstanding Ferrari in 2005 — without the car's location and provenance coming to the attention of the police. By all accounts in Connecticut media, Hallingby appears to have been unaware himself that the car was stolen and is said to be cooperating with the police investigation. He reportedly paid $550,000 for the car, which could now sell in the millions.
The Ferrari was reported stolen, along with three other valuable classics, from a warehouse in Marbella, Spain, in 1993 and is believed to have been brought to the U.S. through New Jersey in 1994, where it was given a false VIN identity. Its whereabouts before it landed with Hallingby in 2000 are under investigation. Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market magazine, told the Connecticut Republican-American newspaper that collectors have known the car was in the U.S. and said his publication's database has sales of the car recorded up to 2000, although there is a lapse in information on the car's whereabouts between 1989 and 1994.
"This car has been hiding in plain sight since it came back to the U.S.," Martin told the paper. He questioned, "Why now did the police decide to act?" The State Police Motor Vehicle Fraud Task Force refused comment on how, or from whom, it received the tipoff to the car's location. The police seized the car on Thursday after an investigation that reportedly started in June.
The stolen 250GT, chassis number 0799, was the 16th of 40 Series 1 cars Ferrari made.
What this means to you: One very happy collector in Switzerland, but one very unhappy former owner in Connecticut. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
The surprising part of the story is how Paul Hallingby of Sharon could have purchased the car and even shown it in such high-profile events as the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance — where it was named Most Outstanding Ferrari in 2005 — without the car's location and provenance coming to the attention of the police. By all accounts in Connecticut media, Hallingby appears to have been unaware himself that the car was stolen and is said to be cooperating with the police investigation. He reportedly paid $550,000 for the car, which could now sell in the millions.
The Ferrari was reported stolen, along with three other valuable classics, from a warehouse in Marbella, Spain, in 1993 and is believed to have been brought to the U.S. through New Jersey in 1994, where it was given a false VIN identity. Its whereabouts before it landed with Hallingby in 2000 are under investigation. Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market magazine, told the Connecticut Republican-American newspaper that collectors have known the car was in the U.S. and said his publication's database has sales of the car recorded up to 2000, although there is a lapse in information on the car's whereabouts between 1989 and 1994.
"This car has been hiding in plain sight since it came back to the U.S.," Martin told the paper. He questioned, "Why now did the police decide to act?" The State Police Motor Vehicle Fraud Task Force refused comment on how, or from whom, it received the tipoff to the car's location. The police seized the car on Thursday after an investigation that reportedly started in June.
The stolen 250GT, chassis number 0799, was the 16th of 40 Series 1 cars Ferrari made.
What this means to you: One very happy collector in Switzerland, but one very unhappy former owner in Connecticut. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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