Monaco 2012 RM Auction of The Saltarelli Ducati Collection

This was the trip of a lifetime, as it will take the rest of my lifetime to pay for it ! Sort or, just kidding. Carlo Saltarelli was a Ducati racer, dealer and owner/collector of Ducati motorcyles for the last 5 decades. As life situation change, Mr. Saltarelli commisioned RM Auctions to hold an auction of 107 Ducati motorcyles that he had collected over the last 40 years. I had the very fortunate situation to be able to attend the auction and take a nice vacation with my wife.

Of all the places on the planet to have this auction, the site was Monaco and the date was the same weekend as the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco ! Can it get any better ?? The answer for me was YES !

Here is a pic outside the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, the day before the Preview. Wow, what a setup, I could hardly wait to get inside.

The RM Auction folks are absolutely the best. I had an issue with registration and recieved a call from a coordinator, Katherine, who was so very helpful in resolving the issue and getting me locked in for the event. I spoke with Dylan, who was extremely helpful in getting me access to the bikes pre-preview to have a look at the bikes. All-in-all, a top notch team. Mr. Saltarelli was there, and it was a pleasure to meet him and his wife and daughters.

The bike collection was amazing. I do not know if there has been any event with such a large number of historic Ducati Motorcycles in one place. I had my eyes set on several bikes. This collection I would classify as a "rider restorer preservationist's" gold mine. IMHO most of the bikes fell into that category. Some older bikes were restored, some as they were back-in-the-day and some needed some level of restoration - basically something for everyone like me !

I was able to repreview the bikes during the setup, which was great since no one else was around, except Ian Fallon (Author of the Ducati Catelogue) which was a suprise (I did not think he would be there) and who was very helpful. All in total, 107 bikes in the Saltarelli Collection !

The auction was amazing. Here is a video of the RM Auction auctioneer in action:

The bounty purchase "A Ducati Sport trifecta" 85 Sport, 100 Sport and 125 Sport

Here are videos of the bikes that I filmed after the auction:

Now, the big wait while they are being shipped !