London - A 1930s Alfa Romeo sports car owned by Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini sold for 550,000 pounds (1.1 million dollars) at auction in Britain in what auctioneers said Monday was a world record price for a model of this type. The 1935 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder, which was used to drive the Italian leader through crowds, attracted only a handful of bids at an earlier auction in February, prompting its owner to withdraw the lot.
But on the second attempt at a different auction house, a private buyer paid over half a million pounds for the treasured model, said Damien Jones, spokesman for H&H classic auctions in Hatton, in the northern English county of Cheshire.
He said the high price was due to the car's unique bodywork and racing history rather than the Mussolini connection.
"The price was more to do with the touring bodywork, which was a unique design for this chassis, along with the fact that the car competed in the Mille Miglia race," said Jones.
"The owner wanted guaranteed entry to a Mille Miglia retrospective and priority is given to cars that were actually used in the original event," he explained.
According to Jones, there were four offers for the car, which had been acquired by a British collector who wished to remain anonymous.
The Spyder was built in 1935 and was driven in the 1936 Mille Miglia, an open road endurance race, by Mussolini's chauffeur and ex- Alfa Romeo test driver Ercole Boratto.
Archive footage shows the dictator saluting crowds as he stood in the passenger seat, with flowers and bouquets strewn on the bonnet.
When the car was offered at auction in Cheltenham, southern England, in February, it attracted a maximum bid of 450,000 pounds and the owner withdrew it from sale.
