The man who owned and lost 30 Bugatti cars.

Some car collectors prefer a variety of cars, while others are ardent fans of a single brand. Such was the case with Fritz Schlumpf, who, according to a Bugatti press release, bought 30 Bugattis at once. The story of his massive purchase of classic cars is one of the strangest in the world of car collecting.

Schrimpf bought his first Bugatti in 1928, when he was 22 years old. He raced the car and socialized with the Bugatti factory, which was still in operation at the time. Schlumpf and his brother Hans organized a successful wool trading company and in 1957 decided to create an automobile museum dedicated to Bugatti. They purchased an abandoned wool mill in Mulhouse, Alsace. All they needed was an automobile.

In 1961, Schlumpf began to assemble his collection. He first contacted Bugatti owners around the world, using registries maintained by Hugh Conway of the British Bugatti Owners Club. Conway introduced Schlumpf to John W. Shakespeare, who kept a collection of 30 Bugattis near his home in Hoffman, Illinois.

Schlumpf offered Shakespeare a lump sum of $70,000. Shakespeare offered $105,000. The collection was appraised by Bugatti expert Bob Shaw, who recognized that most of the cars were in poor condition and advised Schlumpf not to buy them. Nevertheless, Schlumpf made an offer of $80,000.

According to Bugatti representatives, "tough negotiations, mutual threats and blackmail" ensued, but Schrumpf and Shakespeare eventually agreed on a purchase price of $85,000, almost two years after negotiations began. Today, that's the equivalent of $720,000 USD, and yet it's still only a third of the cost of a single Chiron. This price also included the cost of transportation to France.

The 30 cars were shipped by rail to New Orleans, where they were loaded onto ships and delivered to Le Havre, France. In 1965, Schlumpf and his brothers issued a press release announcing plans for a museum, but it was never opened to the public. The decline of the French textile industry and labor disputes over questionable business practices forced the Schlumpf brothers to flee to Switzerland in the 1970s; in 1977, workers discovered the Bugatti stash, which was later sold to the French government.

Bugatti eventually came into the spotlight. Part of the collection became the basis for an automobile museum in Mulhouse, Alsace, created with the support of the French government, fulfilling Schlumpp's dream of a Bugatti-centered car museum. Other cars are also part of the collection at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California.