Prize 1958 Ferrari sports car, stolen in Spain, found in collection in Sharon

SHARON — At this point, anyone who pays attention to the news has heard the saga of the stolen 1958 Ferrari 250 Series 1 PF. State police last week seized the car from a Sharon resident with an exotic car collection, who had apparently purchased the car from a dealer in New Jersey without realizing that it was “hot.†It had been stolen in the resort town of Marbella, Spain, in 1993 from its  owner, a Swiss physician.

But the question that remains is how a savvy car collector, heir to a major fortune and a successful investment banker in his own right, was duped into thinking that the car had all its papers in order.

Some answers came this week from Skip Barber, a classic  car collector himself, and president of the Lime Rock Park race track (which held its annual Vintage Festival on Labor Day weekend, days before the car was seized from its owner, who is a friend of Barber’s).

The rare Ferrari was in the possession of the only son of the late Paul Hallingby Jr., a top executive at Merrill Lynch and then Bear Stearns. He was credited with helping develop the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

His son, Paul L Hallingby, 61, known as Barney, is also an investment banker. He owns several homes, including one in Sharon and one in France; last week, when state police seized the Ferrari from his Sharon residence, Hallingby was at his home in France.

He has not been available to comment on the record for the many stories on his car, which have been broadcast on radio and television news shows and published in Connecticut and New York City newspapers.

Connecticut police trace hot wheels

The state police reported last week that they had seized the car; the story was on the Connecticut state government Web site, ct.gov. The news release  said that the car, valued now at between $4 million and $5 million, was smuggled into New Jersey from Spain, where it was registered and titled (using a false Vehicle Identification Number) in 1994. Over the years, it changed owners numerous times.

The Connecticut State Police Motor Vehicle Task Force and the Connecticut State Police Auto Theft Task Force “became aware†in June 2008 that the car was registered in this state and started a joint investigation, according to the release. With the help of Interpol, they learned the identity of the victim and the history of the theft.

They discovered that the vehicle had come to an owner in Sharon in 2000, who apparently did not know that it was a stolen car.

The police were careful not to reveal the name of the Sharon car owner, who they said was not suspected of any fraudulent activity.

However, the online news release included two photos of the car — and its license plate was clearly visible. Several newspapers then traced the owner’s identity through the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Cars, like art, change value

There has been a great deal of discussion online since the story broke, with car enthusiasts speculating about how much Hallingby actually knew about the car’s origins. At one site, there was a discussion about how he was able to buy the car for half a million dollars when the car is now worth several million.

A lengthy response to that question explained that cars, like art and other collectibles, go up and down in value. When Hallingby purchased the car, there was a slump in the vintage Ferrari market.

But can one really believe everything one reads on the Internet? Probably not. However, a Northwest Corner expert backs up that theory. Skip Barber is the president of the Lime Rock Park race track and a collector of cars himself.

He knows Hallingby well and stressed that, “He’s a good guy, a community supporter. There is nothing remotely wrong with him.â€

No link to Kurrus fraud case

When asked if there is any connection between Hallingby, the Ferrari and former Paradise Garage owner Glen Kurrus, Barber stressed that this case has nothing to do with the fraud cases Kurrus was arrested on last year.

Kurrus was extradicted from California last year by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and brought back to Connecticut to face fraud charges involving vintage automobiles. At least one of the cars involved in the Kurrus trial is still empounded at the state police Troop B barracks in North Canaan. The Ferrari is not there; state police would not reveal its whereabouts.

The attorney general’s office also confirmed that the Ferrari is not linked to any of the Kurrus cases.

A very distinctive car

High-end cars, Barber said, are like works of art. They are carefully crafted objects that inspire a great deal of passion. Collectors are willing to pay astronomical prices to possess them. And they can be copied in such a way that it’s almost impossible to tell the real thing from a fake, in the same way that a talented forger can “fake†a great work of art.

It’s not cheap or easy to do. But, Barber pointed out, the payoff can be substantial if “you can make a $4 million car for $400,000.â€

In this case, however, it wasn’t the car itself that was a fake. No one disputes that this Ferrari is the real deal, one of a limited number made by the Italian car company 50 years ago.

What was faked in this case were the Vehicle Identification Number and all the papers that showed the auto’s “provenance.â€

 The car is distinctive enough that it could still be traced. In fact, the Swiss physician who technically still owns the vehicle told the Connecticut police that he never gave up hope of finding it, and would not accept an insurance claim for it. According to the Connecticut Department of Public Safety news release, “he believed that the Ferrari was so rare and valuable that it would eventually turn up somewhere in the world intact.â€

Which is exactly what happened.

Some online Web discussions have questioned why it took so long for the authorities to track down this car. Hallingby proudly showed it off at many shows, and won several prizes for it, including one at the 2005 Ferrari Club of New England Concorso Ferrari.

Sometime in the past year, apparently, the Swiss owner posted an advertisement in a Ferrari specialty  magazine called Cavallino, asking if anyone had come across his car. An Internet discussion of the ad began in May 2008 at a site called Ferrari Chat, with several people speculating as to how so many years could have gone by before the owner posted the ad.

Within 48 hours of the first posting, the collectors in the online chat had figured out that the car in question was the Ferrari owned by Hallingby. They even include a photo of the car — which appears to be the same photo that the state police attached to their press release. If these Ferrari fans could figure out where the car was that quickly, they seemed to assume that the U.S. authorities and Interpol should have been able to do the same.

There is also a discussion at the site of how the paperwork can be faked on the sale of a car, and whether there is a statute of limitations.

And there are questions about the fact that this is an international case, which will make its resolution more complicated.

More questions than answers

At this point, all the state police will reveal is that they became aware this summer that the car was in Sharon. They have not revealed whether they know the identity of the original thief. It is also not clear whether Hallingby will have any rights to the car, or if he will have to give it up and lose the $550,000 he paid for it.

Of course, the price he paid is quite a bit lower than the car’s value today. Barber suggested that this might be one reason the Swiss owner did not aggressively pursue the search for his car until now.

“These cars are like art or anything you collect,†Barber said. “There have been two major cycles of prices going up. They went up like crazy in the 1980s, and they crashed when everything crashed, like the real estate market up in our part of the world. And it has taken years for those values to get back up where they were. Barney [Hallingby] bought it after the crash. I’m not sure what it was worth before he bought it, but it was more than a million. In the past 18 months, many of those values have come back to where they were, and have even continued to appreciate. There aren’t many of them. And there are more people in the world now that can afford them. Think Eastern Europe, the Middle East.â€

He stressed that for the most part vintage auto collectors are a small and friendly club. Many of the older cars don’t have “titles,†and the transactions are done on a bill of sale.

“It’s a trusting industry,†he said. “You buy cars from people you know and you trust.â€

Other area car collectors echo that sentiment. They love the cars, of course. But they also seek out the camaraderie of a small circle with a shared passion: vintage cars, and an appreciation for the way the world used to be.

This one case is not likely to rock the foundations of that world, but, Barber said, “I think everyone is on full alert now.

“The friendlier it is, the easier it is to take advantage,†he added.