More than 230 old cars put up for auction in the Netherlands (6 photos)

More than 230 old dusty cars are up for auction in the Netherlands cars, including several classics costing several hundreds of thousands of euros each, kept secret for decades collector known only as Mr Palmen.





Dealer gallery Aaldering became the owner of the collection a few months ago after Palmen, who has no heirs, was forced to sell it because of his age and medical reasons.

He never showed off his cars, but rather kept kept them secret for fear that people might steal them, said Niko Aldering of Gallery Aldering. He described Palmen as "a hermit who enjoyed my cars every day", starting them regularly for maintaining engine performance.

The collection that Palmen kept in an abandoned church and on two dusty warehouses, contains cars from brands such as Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati, Ferrari, Facel Vega, Aston Martin, Jaguar and many more others.

"You will probably never find this collection again in such condition and in such numbers," said Hans van der Pluym of Classic car auctions.

He estimates that most cars will be sold in on average priced from 25,000 ($27,520) to 75,000 euros, but added, that some of them cost hundreds of thousands of euros each, and one of them, Lancia Aurelia B24 Spider America RHD, can cost up to 2.5 million euros.

The online auction has already started and will end on June 7th.