Academy of Art University SF Selling Most of its Automobile Museum Collection

Image courtesy Broad Arrow Auctions

The Academy of Art University Automobile Museum in San Francisco is putting the vast majority of its collection---106 vehicles, all at no reserve--- up for auction on February 15.

In an e-mail conversation, Museum Curator Paul Borgward told me that University President Dr. Elisa Stephens is on the record as saying she wants to re-curate and add to the museum in the future.

The Museum was founded by former University President Richard A. Stephens, with acquisitions of historic vehicles beginning in the 1990s.  In 2015, Forbes Magazine reported the museum owned 250 cars, worth an estimated $70 million.  At least 69 vehicles have been sold at auction in the last few years.

While pre-pandemic auctions focused largely on pre-World War II vehicles, the February auction in San Francisco features vehicles built between 1928 and 2000.

At least one of the 106 vehicles, a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing Coupe, is expected to go for between $1.2 and $1.5 million dollars. There is no reserve, meaning that the highest bidder takes the car, even if bids fall short of expectations.

The viewing and auction schedule, admission information, bidder registration, auction catalog and more are available online.

(Broad Arrow Auctions is a Hagerty company. This site and its author share a last name but are otherwise not related to the Hagerty Insurance and media company or its CEO and Chairman of the Board, McKeel Hagerty, who is younger, better looking and infinitely wealthier.)