Pardon Me, Is That Yours?
PARDON ME, IS THAT YOURS?
IGNITION
WANDERING EYE
IN TIME, HISTORY COULD TAKE POSSESSION OF YOUR MOTORCYCLE
PAUL D’ORLEANS
Lined up like the cast of a zombie film, the eight Brough Superiors exhumed from crumbling Cornwall sheds were dictionary illustrations of “rot.” Hoard of the late Frank Vague, the necrotic bloom of their decay fascinated enthusiasts who’d come to gawk, before Bonhams auctioned the remains for astounding prices. With extraordinary rarities like one-of-io-built Brough Superior Austin Four threewheelers and legendary SSioos, sixfigure sales were guaranteed, regardless of state. With chassis and engine numbers intact, resuscitation is inevitable.
Vague was a Brough enthusiast and cherished these machines to their destruction, being psychically unable to part with them or store them properly. Was his behavior criminal, as some suggest—a crime against history? If so, when does history stake a claim on an object?
That question is implicit on front-page news, with viscerally shocking images of World Heritage Sites being dynamited in the Middle East. That’s several orders of magnitude more disturbing than the hornet’s nest that was stirred up five years ago in the halls of the Musée du Louvre in Paris. The offending perp? Ralph Lauren, whose chutzpah extended to painting his collection of 17 irreplaceable automotive masterpieces in his chosen shades and upholstering the interiors in his preferred hides and fabrics.
Nobody doubts Lauren’s design chops, but “customizing” his one-of-two extant 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantics and the rest of his cars in the Louvre pissed off a lot of Europeans. It also exposed a plan afoot in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to include historic vehicles under the World Heritage umbrella; if old buildings and precious artworks are considered part of the global commonwealth by members of the UN, it stands to reason that rare vehicles will eventually be considered the same.
LIVA, the International Historic Vehicle Lederation, drafted the “Charter of Turin” a few years ago, which seeks to “make the whole system of historic vehicles more transparent.” The idea isn’t to criminalize folks like Vague, who abuse precious monuments, but to wield state power by restricting the sale, transfer, licensing, and road use of historic vehicles. No doubt you’re reaching for your Second Amendment, but most of these powers are already in the hands of your local DMV. Still, news stories of major museums and auction houses being raided by federal agents or barred from selling historic artworks of questionable provenance should raise eyebrows in the motorcycle world. How’s that “bill of sale” title transfer coming?
France and Japan already have “cultural repatriation” laws; they retain the right to prevent items from being sold abroad or leaving the country if they are considered national patrimony. While that seems rarified air, it’s already happened with a few cars, and I know one Swiss motorcycle collector who won’t cross the border into France with his near-unique 1928 Koehler-Escoffier 990CC OHC V-twin racer for fear of confiscation. I can’t blame him; I’d hate to lose such a beautiful and rare machine to the hands of a customs agent. Luckily, shouts for enforcing patrimony laws are still rare, but they crop up every time a famous land-speed record or world championship winner is sold “abroad.” The current politico-speak of border-closing, wall-building nationalism (which is not just a trend in the USA but internationally) stokes the fires for state control of cultural objects, which increasingly includes historic motorcycles.
You might think that original-paint 1936 H-D Knucklehead is yours, but like a Lacebook relationship status, that might someday change to “it’s complicated.” ETiM
BY THE NUMBERS
10 BROUGH SUPERIOR AUSTIN FOURTHREE-WHEELERS BUILT. SEVEN SURVIVE, PLUS AT LEASTTWO REPLICAS.
ONE BROUGH SOLD AS A SOLO MACHINE, NOTORIOUSLY RIDDEN BACKWARD AROUND PICCADILLY CIRCUS BYJOURNALIST HUBERT CHANTREY.
131 NATIONS THAT SIGNED THE UNESCO CONVENTION ON THE MEANS OF PROHIBITING AND PREVENTINCTHE ILLICIT IMPORT, EXPORT, AND TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP OF CULTURAL PROPERTY.
