Fake Story, Real Find: 180 Classics Lie In A Warehouse And Their Fate Remains A Mystery.
Just because the story’s fabricated, does it mean the barn-find is fake? Not in the case of this Portuguese haul.
Circa 2007, a story surfaced of a New York man buying a plot in Portugal and finding hundreds of dusty, rusty classics – potentially worth millions – sitting in a barn. And there were photos to prove it.
As it turned out, the whole tale was a falsehood, as barn-find aficionado Tom Cotter discovered after some in-depth research.
The truth of the discovery, according to Cotter, was that the owner – a dealer in the ’70s and ’80s – started hoarding interesting motors that took his fancy. When his barn reached capacity, he welded the doors shut.
Decades later, Manuel Menezes Morais was called in by the owner of the collection to shoot photos of the cars – but not permitted to share any information about their whereabouts or past. Somehow, the images came to be posted online and so the tall tale was created.
A total of 180 classics were reported to reside in the barn – including rare Alfa Romeos, Lancias, Porsches and even a few Rovers. Their fate remains a mystery, though.
