Mussolini's mistress, her Alfa Romeo and the $3 million barn find

Many sports cars make history, but few are part of it. Such is the case with RM Auctions’ Lot 137, which on Wednesday in Paris will gracefully roll into its next owner’s life for somewhere between $2.3 million and $3 million.

The automobile in question is a 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C2500 Sport Berlinetta, a striking pontoon-fendered, wire-wheeled two-door sedan that was a gift from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to his girlfriend, Clara Petacci.

Fast forward to the spring of 1945 and the waning and frantic days of World War II. Petacci and her brother Marcello hop in the Alfa and, making the most of their race-bred vehicle’s 110-hp, triple-Weber inline six, speed north to rendezvous with Mussolini near Lake Como. Their goal is asylum in neutral Switzerland.

But as the convoy, which includes a retreating German anti-aircraft unit, barrels on, it is stopped at an Italian partisan checkpoint. The Fascist leader and his girlfriend are swiftly shot and then hung by their heels at a gas station. The Alfa Romeo’s keys end up in the pocket of a U.S. Army officer. Mussolini’s story is over, but the Alfa’s begins again.

“The history of this car certainly gives you something to talk about,” says Peter Wallman, RM Europe’s car specialist, employing extreme understatement. “The Mussolini provenance adds interest, but first you need to be captivated by the 6C’s harmonious shapes, its delightful rear spats and raked grille.”

And there’s the chance to take the car back home to Italy for a momentous national rally. “Running this Alfa in the Mille Miglia would be a natural,” says Wallman, adding that RM’s estimate for the car was reached independent of its place in world history.

That might be underselling this 6C a bit. Consider that last summer, a Ferrari 275 GTB once owned by Steve McQueen sold for $10 million, more than double what the same car driven by anyone other than the iconic actor might fetch. Granted, Mussolini is no McQueen, but for many collectors owning a car with famous connections clearly is worth a premium.

So what did happen to the red car — which during the flight north was disguised as a Spanish diplomatic vehicle — after its ignominious owners were hauled out of it?

Italian authorities brought the car to the northern Italian port city of Livorno, where it was acquired by Army Air Corps officer Major Charles Pettit, who used it to shuttle around the town. In 1949, Pettit shipped the car home to upstate New York, where he drove it until a failed connecting rod landed the Alfa Romeo a permanent place in a barn.

Then things got interesting in the manner of most great classic-car tales. In 1970, the thoughtful students of a car-loving Mohawk, N.Y., high school teacher named Ron Keno pointed out an ad for the thoroughly forlorn Alfa in Hemmings Motor News.