More Bugattis in a scrapyard

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It’s been 40 years since German photographer Herbert W. Hesselmann published his mesmerizing and rather mysterious photographs of Bugattis and other exotics hidden in a number of French barns. Stern magazine had the scoop at the time with numerous publications to follow. Four decades later the original images have lost nothing of their appeal, although the mystery is gone. The barns have been located and emptied, the man behind the collection has been named and interviewed, his cars have been described and photographed in every detail.

If like us, you have been intrigued by Hesselmann’s pictures originally, then you will like this one. The setting is similar, with a stash of historic cars in a rather dilapidated state. A barn or an outside location? Probably the latter. A scrapyard? In France? Or is it even the same collection? It’s all possible. Time-wise we tend to think this was shot in the 1960s when these cars could be purchased for less money than a second hand Renault Fregatte would cost – one is seen in the upper right-hand corner.

There are at least three Bugattis in this picture but it makes great guessing what’s under those covers, too. We’re sure some of you will have seen this picture before and will be able to tell us the exact location latitudes, who these men are and what they ate for breakfast that day, the Bugattis’ chassis numbers and… their fate. It would perhaps be more romantic not to know all that, though.

Words by Jeroen Booij. Picture from the archive - source unknown.

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