Those close to the £150m scheme claim collector’s passing will not derail it
THE LONG-PLANNED Mullin museum in the UK’s Cotswolds is still likely to go ahead despite the closure of the Mullin Automotive Museum in California and the imminent dispersal of 20 cars from it, key players close to the project have insisted.
The £150m plans for a 160-acre automotive park near Chipping Norton have already had a rocky ride and, five years on from its announcement, building work is yet to begin at the old Enstone airfield. After initial plans were thrown out, Sir Norman Foster revised the proposal and it was eventually given the green light in March last year. At its heart would be a 60,000sq ft museum housing 70 cars, plus a speed-limited test track, while 56 homes targeted at wealthy enthusiasts would be built adjacent. Around 30 cars from Mullin’s collection were to form the core of the UK museum on a rotational basis, with further exhibits on loan from other collectors.
Naturally, recent developments in the US following the death of Peter Mullin in September caused concerns that the UK scheme would be shelved. In January it was announced that, after 14 years, the 47,000sq ft Mullin museum in Oxnard would close on 10 February, then shortly afterwards came the news that 20 cars from the collection would go under the hammer at no reserve during Gooding & Co’s Amelia Island sale on 29 February and 1 March, with a further auction to be scheduled at the museum itself in April.
Although the sale features a wealth of desirable cars from the collection – including 1925 Bugatti Type 35C Grand Prix and Gangloff-bodied 1931 Type 49, 1936 Voisin Type C28 Clairière Berline, 1946 Delage D6 Grand Prix, plus 1948 Delahayes Type 175 GP and 1948 Type 135 MS Cabrio – at least four key Mullin exhibits have been donated to the Petersen Museum, in which Peter Mullin was also heavily involved. They are the 1937 Talbot-Lago T150 CS Teardrop, 1938 Hispano-Suiza H6B Dubonnet Xenia, 1939 Delahaye 165 and 1938 Delahaye 145. With the cars believed to be largely held in trust, meaning Mullin’s family may have little say over their future, prospects for two of the museum’s most famous exhibits – its Bugatti Atlantic and the ‘lakefind’ Bugatti Brescia – are currently uncertain.
However, Octane has been assured the same uncertainty should not be applied to the Mullin museum in the UK. Peter Mullin always trumpeted the Oxfordshire facility as his legacy project but, as he became increasingly ill in the months l
