O'Quinn Collection to Be Liquidated

[Charles D. Barnette]

Old Cars Weekly is reporting that the O'Quinn Collector Car collection will be liquidated. This concerns some 32 Cadillacs which includes the Motorama 1956 Eldorado Brougham Town Car, a 1958 Eldorado Brougham, and a 1903 Cadillac. My worst fears have been realized-what will happen to the Town Car? Charles D. Barnette

[Otto Skorzeny]

My worst fears have been realized-what will happen to the Town Car?

What are your worst fears and how have they been realized? Do you think the Town Car is going to be sold for scrap or something?

What's wrong with an appreciative collector buying the car?

[Charles D. Barnette]

What I fear is that a collector outside the US will buy the car and remove it from our country. It being a sacred Motorama car I wish for it to remain in our country as we will never be able to return to the Motorama days again. The Town Car is a National Treasure that should remain here in our country. Charles D. Barnette

[Otto Skorzeny]

My guess is it'll end up in Australia or Sweden.

[Jim Stamper]

    Charles;

     Buy the car, or put together a single purpose consortium and buy it.  No idea what it will cost, but get enough people to pledge enough and anything can be bought. Then donate it to the museum and every member gets a non-profit donation break. Probably works something like that. You can check it out and see what you can do.

    But those are old car guys over the pond too, and they love our cars.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

What I fear is that a collector outside the US will buy the car and remove it from our country. It being a sacred Motorama car I wish for it to remain in our country as we will never be able to return to the Motorama days again. The Town Car is a National Treasure that should remain here in our country. Charles D. Barnette

Hardly consider the item being considered a "National Treasure". 

Am I correct in saying that it didn't even have an engine in it when it was initially displayed?   If so, then it is just another piece of 3D art.

Bruce.

PS.   The Motorama car wouldn't be regarded as a top priority for anyone outside USA as I can say for Australia, we like to drive our vehicles and not let them just sit around "gathering dust"

[Richard Sills - CLC #936]

This is a reminder to all collectors to make sure their estate plans include some provision for their collectible cars and related items, if they have any concern for what happens to them after their deaths.  This is one of the reasons the Cadillac LaSalle Club Museum & Research Center was created -- to provide a means to preserve Cadillac history for the benefit of future generations as well as today's hobbyists and historians.   

Mr. O'Quinn reportedly planned to create a world-class auto museum to maintain his collection in Houston for the public to enjoy.  That would also have (most likely) saved his estate millions of dollars in estate taxes, as well as creating a permanent legacy to Mr. O'Quinn's memory. 

While of course these cars are private property, at the same time they (or at least the unique ones) are icons of American automotive history from an era that will never be repeated.  I share Charles Barnette's hope that the one-of-a-kind cars will find their way to collectors who will make it possible for future American car enthusiasts to enjoy and appreciate these cars and the history they represent.

[David Smith]

Agreed.  The Brougham Town car deserves to be in a Museum, not squirreled away in a private collection.   

I'm sure they would love to add to the collection at the Cadillac Historical Collection or at Greenfield Village in Detroit too.

[veesixteen]

Two schools of thought here.  GM never planned for this to be a running car. It was simply a study in "modern" (for the time) town car design, a pushmobile, a reminder of a bygone era.  Personally, I would have left it as it was conceived in 1956, i.e. a piece of 3D art (as Bruce says), to be exhibited in an art museum. It's like the 1961 Pinin Farina "Jacqueline" coupe that was purported to have been built on a 1959 Eldorado Brougham chassis; it too was just a pushmobile until someone grafted it (at great expense) onto the well-worn chassis of a 1960 Eldorado convertible with an even older 1959 motor. Shame !  Who would want to graft arms onto the statue of Venus de Milo?

[jaxops]

    Charles;

     Buy the car, or put together a single purpose consortium and buy it.  No idea what it will cost, but get enough people to pledge enough and anything can be bought. Then donate it to the museum and every member gets a non-profit donation break. Probably works something like that. You can check it out and see what you can do.

    But those are old car guys over the pond too, and they love our cars.

Just buy it!

[Pat]

But Yann.....they  have!
 Cheers,Pat

[JonRiley]

Do you know that the collection is actually being liquidated and that the museum plans are off?

Or, are they paying the estate tax, buy selling some portion of the collection?

In any event, some of those cars would look real good in Hickory Corners, MI, in the future home of the CLC Museum - hint hint anyone with deep pockets.

[Charles D. Barnette]

It appears to me that according to the Old Cars Weekly article they are selling off the "cream of the crop" first and the dream of a public museum is "gone with the wind". They have to balance between flooding the market and getting as much cash as possible. Therefore they are liquidating in batches at different auction sites just as the Harrah collection was sold. Charles D. Barnette

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Just goes to prove that Cars aren't everything.

One mans treasure is another man's junk.

Bruce.

[Gergely Szentmartony 25603]

For those people who visit this forum to learn Cadillac history from great people like Charles, Yann, Otto, etc.,
For those people who had no idea how 1956 Eldorado Brougham Town Car looked like before,
For those people who are starving for knowledge about famous and rare cars like 1956 Eldorado Brougham Town Car,
Simply, for those people just like me  :
http://www.car-nection.com/yann/dbas_txt/brg04.htm

[Barry M. Wheeler #2189]

Gergely,

It was stuffed in a garage covered with this and that on top of it, and so dirty that you couldn't tell what color it was. That day, the CLC Board also got to see the un-restored Knudsen V-16 sedan as found, still on a trailer.