Ferrari's at the Schlumpf Museum

+1 and thank you for the pictures.

It's on my list of places to visit

 

It's truly a brilliant place. Don't do it on a day where time is tight, you could easily lose a whole day in there.

One of the few modern cars in there is an Argento 512TR

 

Especially as the railway museum - for which you can buy a combined ticket - is an equally amazing experience. The display area is something like 25000 squaremeters (=280.000 sq. ft.) if I recall right.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The 500TRC is that totally original?
is that how bad they looked when they were new?
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Ferraris and Maseratis not Ferrari's and Maserati's.


Nice pics though.

 

Are all the display cars owned by the museum or are some on loan? Also wondering, has the government added to the collection or all the cars left from the Schlumpf Bros?

I guess if there is a 512 TR there it means yes to one of my questions.

 

Many of the cars in the museum look like they were just parked and left 20 years ago. Some even had cobwebs on them last time I was there in 2010! It is so huge, I think the maintenance budget is stretched pretty thin.

 

Not sure about the Ferraris (and the other "newer" cars), but the Bugattis with few exceptions have all been restored but with standards from 50 years ago and definately not with the goal to make them look as original. They put a lot of effort in the Royales for example but most of the "lesser" cars look very shoddy and tired. The museum's restoration budget is very thin, they keep a dozen or so cars running but 99% of the collection hasnt been worked on since the Schlumpf days. Sad.

 

A partial answer is that the French Government apparently saved the Schlumpf Collection because British dealers and the trade put massive pressure not to suddenly flood the market with hundreds of Bugatti at the same time. The French Govt has not as far as I am aware spent any money to purchase new vehicles, but does accept vehicles from manufacturers that are significant, I believe some are on loan and others are gifted, I know at least one racing Porsche is on permanent loan per se. Further it is perhaps understandable that with the French economy rather ailing there is little or no budget for major restorations.

 

Exactly that's why I'm asking if Ferrari's looked like this (bad finishing touches) when they where new?
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

When new? No. When a few years old, on the 3rd or 4th owner? Yes.

 

0692 MDTR had four owners, all in Switzerland, until it was sold as a tired old race car to Hans & Fritz Schlumpf in 1961. The air vents in the front fenders were decorated with a chromed grille shortly before the sale to the Schlumpf Bros.
In April 1998 this 500 TRC was undergoing maintenance aty Rinaldi's Générale Automobile SA of Biltzheim, France.

Marcel Massini

 

It seems that most of the F-Chatters here think that the Schlumpf collection today belongs to the french state, and is administered by it...but it does not: it legally belongs not to the State, but to an association, which administers it.
As such, it benefits from “some” support from the State as donations, like many others associations, but this is not its main source of revenue.
So the collection is not directly supported from public money from the state budget: it has to be maintained on the Associations’s revenues (which are: entry fares, private donations, sponsoring, support from the local authorities, some support from the state).

Just a few snippets of information to put – again - the story in perspective.
The two brothers, and especially Fritz, collected the 560 or so cars in a very short period of time, from 1961 to 1967 exactly, long after they became famous for their financial and industrial skills, in the thirties. After 1967, the bulk of the collection was complete; they then stopped to buy cars (well, one or two from time to time&#8230 and began the second step of their project, which was having each car of the collection restored to what they hoped would be exacting standards. To accomplish this task, they hired about thirty workers dedicated to that work.

But the success of their textile empire was short-lived; in the seventies, their business began to turn badly, this due to the bad economy of the seventies – industrial crisis, first petroleum crisis, etc…but also in part to a share of the profits having been channeled into their car collection. The whole situation came to a climax at the end of 1976, with a massive conflict and strike, and at the beginning of 1977, their factories were occupied by their workers, who, for most of them, had some knowledge of the collection, but no idea of its size. The discovery of the unusual hobby of the Schlumpf brothers was part of the array of scandal that surrounded the case. Both brothers fled the French territory to avoid being arrested.

During the aftermath of the conflict, the extent of the collection was truly assessed and its significance measured; considering it was exceptional from a cultural point of view, the French highest authority for public laws, the Conseil d’Etat, had the full collection classified by Decree on April 14th, 1978 to the “Inventaire des Monuments Historiques” or Inventory of Historical Monuments, which has ONE direct consequence: the collection could no longer be parted or the cars dispersed, it has to be considered as one lot. From the Decree point of view, what made the collection unique was not each individual car, but the fact that they were together in one single lot.
Keep also in mind that the collection was still legally a private property at the time, even if under investigation; even if there were questions about it having been acquired legally or not, or with the brothers’ own money or with the profits from their businesses (or with both&#8230 there was no right for the state to confiscate it; it was an asset of the Schlumpf brothers or their enterprises, and it was the duty of the judicial system to decide what should this asset became…and what should be done with the collection, this taking into account that the April 14th 1978 decree now made its dispersion impossible and illegal.

The courts decided in 1980 to authorize the sale of the collection, but due to its classification at the “Inventory of Historical Monuments” it could only be sold in one lot. It was sold to an Association, the Association Nationale du Musée de l’Automobile, created for this purpose by local authorities (= the city of Mulhouse, the Haut-Rhin department, the Alsace region and the Chamber of Commerce of Alsace South) and the Automobile Club de France, presided at the time by Jean Panhard, with the hope of being chosen to preserve the exceptional collection and maintain it in Mulhouse.
The association bought the collection for exactly 44 millions of french francs, even if some estimates, mainly those of Christies’, considered that the collection could have fetched about 325 millions if sold in an auction; but to auction it would have meant to sell cars individually, what was impossible.

Note that in 1998 the French courts closed the Schlumpf case for good and that 60 cars were given back to Fritz widow, Arlette. Hans Schlumpf died in 1989 without having ever returned in Alsace, because he would have been arrested; his brother Fritz died in Switzerland in 1992 after a last visit to his beloved collection in 1990.

You should consider that the collection is administrated by an Association into which local authorities are represented and bring probably “some” finance, but the collection does not live mainly on national budget (or “federal money” as would our American friends say), and the french government has no say in how it is administered.

Rgds

 

Excellent explanation, many thanks.

 

The two brothers, Hans and Fritz Schlumpf, were Swiss citizens and mainly lived at the famous Hotel Trois Rois in Basel, Switzerland. They regularly visited the Geneva Motor Show and in 1985 bought also a brand new, red Testarossa in Switzerland.

Marcel Massini

 

Yes, of course you are right Marcel; if my memory serves me well, they took refuge at the Hotel Trois Rois after the french law decided to have them arrested, and stayed mainly at this hotel until their death.
They were in fact born in Italy, but after the death of their father, came to live in Mulhouse, Alsace, where their mother was coming from.

Their story is in some ways fascinating. They were also very different: although very rich and obsessed by Bugattis, Fritz always was very kind to the workers of their empire, whereas Hans was more the banker, and not kind at all, cutting the wages of his workers of one hour pay for being two minutes late, among other things.

I still remember when the extent of the collection was discovered and it was shown in the news on TV for the first time...125 Bugattis...

Rgds

 

Amazing old days! There are pictures of a train full of cars that is unbelievable, full of Bugatti s including a Royale. Incredible.

 

I had the pleasure of visiting the museum a year ago and was blown away. It is by far the finest collection of automobiles ever put together in my opinion. Most of them have had very bad restorations and they are not running but the museum has taken better care of them than the Schlumpf brothers did.

 

From what I have read it is quite the opposite Andrew, indeed the Schlumpf brothers restored a lot of cars to near perfect condition in the 60s and 70s but the cost was high and whether that drove the "fraud" or not nobody knows. The fact the brothers lost everything kind of bought matters to an end. I would guess that the authorities that own the collection would love for all of the cars to be restored to 2014 standards but without massive state subsidies or a billionaire supporter like Ralph Lauren that is unaffordable. Your admission ticket would only pay for so much.

Finally, an ethical point would be that the cars that weren't restored are original and that is in my view a far better thing than some over-restored Pebble Beach shine-mobile.

Just my 2 cents

Btw, excellent post Nerofer......

 

Many of the cars have not been restored and are in a well preserved state, some of them have been restored pretty well, and some of them the Schlumpfs horribly restored. As a result of a later lawsuit filed by one of the brothers, some of the cars were given back to his wife. The cars they were given back were basically left to rot and significantly deteriorated during their ownership. Some of them are on display at the Mullin Museum today. The rest of the cars luckily did not suffer the same fate.

The museum is a must visit for any car enthusiast and I can't wait until I have the chance to go back again. It's hard to even imagine what the whole collection would be worth in the current market.

 

That famous photo is from the moment when the Schlumpf Bros. acquired the John Shakespeare collection in USA and the Bug's arrived by train in France. Bugatti guru Hugh Conway was deeply involved at the time.

Marcel Massini

 

Definitely one of the world's automotive highlights. For me the 3 highlights of car museums are Schlumpf, Beaullie (sp?) and the carpark /garages at Goodwood Revival.

 

I recently bought a book about the Schlumpf collection by Dutch authors Arnoud and Ard op de Weegh. I haven't read it yet, but there's a long list of all the cars that were bought by the Schlumpf brothers. Chassisnumbers are included.
They also mention two Ferraris without chassisnumber that I didn't see when I visited the museum more than 20 years ago:
- 512M, bought from Ferrari for 5,000,000 Lire in 1973,
- 275, bought from Filipinetti for 26,100 Swiss Francs in 1971.

Anyone any idea which chassis numbers belong to these two Ferraris?

 

They never had a 512 M and also not a 275, both of these informations are incorrect.

Marcel Massini