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Lavish Lawford

Lavish Lawford – Ex-actor Peter Lawford 1961 Gia L 6.4 to be sold by RM Sotheby’s at their Monterey sale on 18th to 19th August 2017 – Estimate of £230,000 to £288,000 ($300,000 to $375,000, €260,000 to €326,000 or درهم1.1 million to درهم1.4 million)

1961 Ghia fastback coupé originally owned by actor Peter Lawford to be auctioned

 

Actor, producer and socialite Peter Lawford (1923 – 1984), the illegitimate son of Lieutenant-General Sir Sydney Lawford, KBE (1865 – 1953, AKA ‘Swanky Syd’) and the then wife of one of his officers, May Aylen, was a member of ‘The Rat Pack’ and at one-time brother-in-law to John F. Kennedy. He was the last person to speak to Marilyn Monroe, appeared in Ocean’s Eleven (1960) and now a 1961 Ghia L 6.4-litre originally owned by him – described as “one of the finest-finished automobiles in the world” – is to be sold at auction in August.

 

Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra in the original ‘Ocean’s Eleven’

 

Offered with an estimate of £230,000 to £288,000 ($300,000 to $375,000, €260,000 to €326,000 or درهم1.1 million to درهم1.4 million) and having cost the punchy sum of $13,500 new in 1961 (the equivalent of $111,000, £85,000, €96,000 or درهم408,000 today), the fastback coupé to be offered by RM Sotheby’s at their Monterey sale on 18th to 19th August is one of just 26 built and sold. It is the first production chassis to have rolled off the line and is one of just a few cars to have been specially modified for members of ‘The Rat Pack’ including not only Lawford but also Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

 

Opulent beyond belief, the car was restored by its current owner from 2006 to 2009 and now boasts an interior with Bentley specification leather, a special gauge cluster and air conditioning. It is offered for sale publicly for the first time and is described as “deserving of a star now, as in 1961.”

 

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