The whereabouts of Jean Bugatti’s mythical Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic, which was named La Voiture Noire, puzzles historians and automotive enthusiasts to date. However, the vanished Type 57 SC isn’t the only classic Bugatti shrouded in mystery. Back in 2009, a 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia Roadster was fished out from the bottom of a lake in Switzerland.
The rusted-out remains of the vintage car were auctioned a year later by Bonhams and were acquired by longtime car collector Peter Mullin for a whopping $364,700. Many critics said Mullin had lost his mind, claiming a well-preserved example of the open-top Bugatti could have been purchased for much less. However, the legend behind the Bugatti that sat at the bottom of a lake for seven decades made it worth every penny for the Mullin.
According to rumors, the Bugatti was once owned by famous race car driver René Dreyfus. As the legend goes, Dreyfus gave away the car to Swiss playboy Adalbert Bodé in Paris in 1934 when he lost in Poker and did not have enough cash to cover his marker. Bodé decided to drive back to Switzerland via Italy but was stopped at the border by customs officials who demanded import duties to be paid on the car.
Back in those days, the Bugatti roadster wasn’t as desirable, and the Swiss playboy decided to abandon the car. Swiss law at the time stated that any car with unpaid duties had to be destroyed.
The local Swiss customs officials decided to destroy the abandoned Bugatti by dumping it in Lake Maggiore, located close to the border. The roadster was suspended by a heavy chain in case it ever had to be retrieved. However, the chain snapped at some point in time, sending the Bugatti to the bottom of the 173-foot-deep lake.
Over the years, the story slowly turned into a legend. It was in 1964 when a Swiss scuba diver named Ugo Pillon decided to dive into the lake bed to verify the legend by finding the mythical Bugatti. To his surprise, the story turned out to be true after he found the Bugatti half buried in silt.
For decades, the sunken Bugatti remained a popular attraction for hobby divers. A tragic incident in 2008 caused the Bugatti to be fished out of the lake. A diving club by the name of Centro Sport Subacquei Salvataggio Ascona decided to salvage the car and auction it off to raise money for a charity set up after the loss of a member of the club who lost his life in a street attack.
When the Bugatti was brought back to dry land in 2009, it was in very bad shape, with most of the components and panels eaten by rust. Some portions that were buried under silt were in better condition, but Bonhams said only a fraction of the original car could be salvaged for restoration.
The Bugatti had a pre-sale estimate of $130,000, but the late Peter Mullin, a famous car collector and renowned philanthropist, found the story fascinating enough to buy the Bugatti by paying almost thrice the estimate. The lifelong collector of beautiful French cars had acquired the roadster for his Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California.
The rusted Bugatti was put on display at the museum, where it was stored in a humidity-controlled environment to ensure its preservation. A plaque for the exhibit also narrated the whole story of how the Bugatti was lost in a game of poker and ended up in a lake. However, the legend might be more fiction than real as the auction house discovered that the Bugatti was actually owned by a Swiss architect who never officially imported the car, flouting the rules. Nevertheless, it doesn’t make the Bugatti any less special. Sadly, the glorious automotive museum was shut down recently after Peter Mullin passed away last year.
