PHOENIX, Ariz. -- An armored-plated Mercedes-Benz that was a gift from Adolf Hitler to his mistress, Eva Braun, was sold at auction Sunday for $240,000, but Hitler's parade car failed to draw a required $500,000 bid.
Tom Barrett, a partner in the 10th annual Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction, withdrew Hitler's car, another bullet-proof Mercedes-Benz 540-K roadster, because the top bid was only $400,000.
'I'll hold on to it until the time is right, the money is right and the right person will appreciate it,' Barrett said of the Hitler car. 'That's the most important -- the person that will appreciate it as an historical car.'
After the sale of the Braun car, Barrett announced he would donate $15,000 of the selling price to the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation, a Jewish organization studying the Holocaust. Barrett earlier had said he would donate $10,000 from the sale of both the Hitler and the Braun cars to a Jewish charity that he did not name until Sunday.
The Braun car, a 1938 metallic gold roadster 540-K, was sold to Al del Assandro, a Fort Worth, Texas, car collector who outbid four other persons. The car went for half of what Barrett had predicted, but an auction spokesman said he sold it because he knows del Assandro.
According to the spokesman, del Assandro, who had sought the car for years, will add it to his collection and has no plans to show the vehicle.
Another highly publicized car, a Mercedes-Benz 540-K roadster once given by dime store heiress Barbara Hutton to Prince Alexis Mdivani as a wedding gift in the 1930s, was pulled off the auction block.
Barrett had predicted the car would sell for $700,000, but said he decided against selling it because 'I want to play with it some more.'
About 1,000 cars were sold at the auction, claimed to be the largest of its type in the world, for a 'close to $10 million, according to a spokesman.
The top price was $360,000 for a 1935 Swiss-made Hispano Suiza J12. It was purchased by an unidentified Iranian businessman living in England.
