‘Sales of Palmen collection were unfair’

Earlier this year, the well-known classic collector and dealer Nico Aaldering made a huge success with the purchase and auction of the Palmen collection. That ‘barn find’, a collection of classic cars secretly built up by ‘hermit’ Ad Palmen, earned Aaldering a lot of money. Out by RTL News However, requested documents show that the municipality of Dordrecht has questioned the way in which Aaldering was able to make its move.

The entire collection and the buildings in which the cars were located were offered for a sealed bid on behalf of Ad Palmen by the Veritas Foundation. The municipality of Dordrecht says it was not fully informed of what was offered. That would have contributed to the fact that Aaldering, rather than the municipality, submitted the best overall bid. The municipality of Dordrecht bid together with another car collector from Dordrecht, but the municipality would not have known about one of the two buildings and the car collector would not have been aware of all 230 cars. A lawyer arrives RTL know that the process was ‘messy’ and ‘not transparent’ and that therefore the optimal yield for Mr Palmen (who died shortly after the auction) may not have been achieved.

The municipality complained about the course of events to the court in Rotterdam and that is what has now become known through the Open Government Act. RTL News. However, they did not proceed with a lawsuit and according to the director of the Veritas Foundation, that actually says enough. He explains RTL that everything was fair and that everyone had equal opportunities. In addition to his offer, according to the Veritas Foundation, Aaldering simply stood out above the rest because he wanted to take over everything and because he could act quickly.