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Christie’s has removed its headlining lot, a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT attributed to Angelina Jolie, from its “Exceptional Sale” on November 20.
The reversal comes after comments refuting the vehicle’s ownership appeared in a prominent Ferrari forum and investigation by people familiar with the car revealed some doubt as to its current legal proprietor. Bloomberg previously reported on the auction listing, noting basic details of its provenance were lacking.
Christie’s maintains that the car belongs to Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie.Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Christie’s continues to attest that the car belongs to the Oscar-winning actress, although it declined to provide an image of the title or paperwork associated with the car and has deactivated the web page once touting the connection. It had listed the estimated value of the black coupe, an early model considered of minor significance among the higher-priced blue-chip Ferrari rankings, from €600,000 to €800,000 ($986,000 to $1.3 million).
“At the request of Ms. Jolie’s team, Christie’s will not offer this lot at auction in November, to better position the lot for future sale,” Edward Lewine, a Christie’s spokesperson, said in an emailed statement.
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Initially painted in white, the car in question, chassis 0953, previously sold for €580,000 at a RM Sotheby’s auction in Paris in 2015; it was also offered for sale in an undated listing and was on view at Copley Motorcars of Boston for $US895,000 ($1.36 million). (A spokesperson for RM Sotheby’s did not confirm the person who purchased the car at the Paris auction.) Barchetta.cc, a well-known reference and archive for Ferrari cars, lists Copley Motorcars as the last known owner in 2015. Stu Carpenter, the founder of Copley Motorcars, did not respond to requests for comment.
The 1958 Ferrari 250 GT was expected to fetch around $1 million.
It was unclear whether the car in question had been a gift to Jolie, who filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in September 2016. The actress has previously auctioned off other gifts from her former husband, including a painting by Winston Churchill that sold for GBP 8.28 million ($16.3 million) at a Christie’s sale in 2021. A representative for Pitt did not comment.
Jolie appeared with a similar vehicle in a 2017 advertisement for Guerlain. Christie’s was unable to confirm whether the vehicle was the same as the one it had offered for sale.