Reports that Saab’s 120+ car museum would remain intact appear to have been a little premature. The Saab museum is currently heading to auction as part of the company’s liquidation process.
Earlier reports suggested that Saab’s hometown of Trollhattan, along with SAAB AB and The Wallenberg Foundation, had pooled enough resources to purchase the entire Saab museum from the automaker’s receivers. However, that apparently wasn’t the case and the collection will be sold to the highest bidder.
Under the best-case scenario the entire Saab collection would be sold to a single bidder but, in all likelihood, the vehicles will be sold as individual lots.
“The sad reality of the situation is, the company is in bankruptcy proceedings, and the receivers will do what they can to maximize the value,” Tim Colbeck, Saab Cars North America’s most recent CEO, told The Detroit News. “Quite a few of the cars are significant. The best outcome is that a collector or museum would buy the whole thing. We can only hope that the cars will end up with people who can take care of them for posterity.”
The Saab museum collection contains a number of significant cars, including the 1947 Ursaab and the AeroX concept from the 2006 Geneva Motor Show. Saab’s most recent concept, the PhoeniX, however, is conspicuously absent from the auction list.
