1930 Lincoln Phaeton
Another name is joining Madoff and Mowen on the list 21st of century defrauders to have their pricey personal property auctioned off. Shawn Merriman extracted $20.1 million dollars from investors in the West and, like his peers in infamy, put much of his ill-gotten gains into physical property, including classic cars.
Unlike Madoff and Mowen, however, who with their gold-plated yachts and customized Chevelles had the discriminating taste of your crazy old neighbor who saves string, Merriman bought the good stuff. Think Old Masters quality art (like a Rembrandt), and Full Classics.
All four of the Full Classics in the sale are in mid-restoration and I don’t know if he was actually restoring them himself or had enslaved someone to do them, but the sale also has a hi-boy roadster, four daily drivers and many restoration tools. There are lots of other items available in addition to the cars and art, as well: A serious motorcoach, hunting and camping gear; boat; motorcycles, snowmobiles and dirt bikes, trailers – a whole mess of stuff. Dickensheet is handling the sale in Denver on January 29. They didn’t or perhaps couldn’t ID the cars; I’ll leave that to you. In addition to the ’32 Hi-boy and 2006 Vantage, there’s the 1930 Lincoln above, 1937 Cord, 1936 Auburn supercharged Cabriolet, and 1932 Auburn Phaeton.
