classic cars found in a barn go up for auction

FOR THE PAST 50 years, some of the coolest, most beautiful, and rarest cars on the planet were sitting in the west of France, hardly protected from the elements, slowly rusting and falling apart.

Fortunately for those who want to see those cars restored, and way more fortunately for those who are going to profit, these cars, 60 in all, were "discovered" last year and are being auctioned.

These classic models from Maserati, Renault, Talbot Lago, Bugatti, and more once belonged to Roger Baillon, who owned a transport company and hoped to someday open his own automotive museum. Financial troubles forced him to sell half his collection in the 1970s. The rest were stuck under makeshift shelters around his estate near Poitiers. After Baillon died a decade ago, his son Jacques inherited the collection; he died last year. So his children decided to sell the cars through auction house Artcurial.

The aging beauties—including a 1961 Ferrari 250 once owned by French film star Alain Delon—are being sold during Artcurial’s Retromobile Salon in Paris.