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The new book
... "The Fate of the Sleeping Beauties" -
The true story behind the world famous car collection
Ard op de Weegh, Kay Hottendorff & Arnoud op de Weegh "The Fate of the Sleeping Beauties" 2010, Veloce Publishing, 160 pages, £ 29.99, ISBN: 978-1-845840-70-9 This English language book will be published in September/October 2010. At Veloce's Sleeping Beauties competition, you can win the new book and a 2011 calendar featuring the best photos contributed to the photo contest ! Ard op de Weegh, Kay Hottendorff & Arnoud op de Weegh "Het lot van de Slapende Schoonheden" 2008, De Alk & Heijen, 159 pages, Euro 32,50, ISBN: 978-9060133026, This Dutch language book is available via any good bookshop or via the publisher (info@alk.nl). The authors are in search of publishers for French and German versions. Starting in 1983 the photo series "Sleeping Beauties" of German photographer Herbert W. Hesselmann became world famous. His "Sleeping Beauties" photos of 50+ mostly highclass classical cars decaying in a French garden have been published in various international magazine. "Der Stern" (D), "Geo" (F), Automobile Quarterly (USA) or Supercar Classics (UK) prepared success for two "Sleeping Beauties" books to follow (1986 & 2007). The public lost sight of the collection after it had been removed from the Sleeping Beauties garden to an unknown destination in the middle of the 1980s. Unfortunately none of the publications told the stunning backgrounds of this collection or what happened to it after the relocation. Together with Ard & Arnoud op de Weegh, two friends from the Netherlands, I wrote a book to fills this gap. Special thanks to former Sleeping-Beauties-owner Michel Dovaz for his kind support and to my co-authors Ard & Arnoud, who invested a tremendous amount of work to make this book a success. Please read the back cover text: Say ‘Sleeping Beauties’ to committed car enthusiasts and they will immediately know what you’re talking about: a world famous 1980s photo series, showing an extraordinary collection of classical automobiles rusting away in a French barn, neglected by their owner. Famous brands like Bugatti, Lancia, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Cord and Aston Martin, laying under thick layers of dust, spending their remaining days falling apart in isolation. Many have tried to find out what happened to these cars over the last twenty-five years – decayed? destroyed? sold? – but all leads fizzled out ... until two Dutchmen and a German hung on where others had given up. In true Boy’s Own style, their book tells of the three-year-long search for the fate of the cars from that French barn. It tells the story behind the collection’s origins in 1948, through the moment in 1983 when the famous photos were published, up to the day in 2007 when the authors talked to the current 79 year old owner – a man who finally broke his silence about the fate of his collection for the first time in 25 years. The gates of the famous "Sleeping Beauties" garden south of Paris, which doesn't host cars since the relocation in the mid 1980s (photo Kay Hottendorff, 2007) The first restored "Sleeping Beauty", an extremely rare 1948 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Competizione (photo Dominique Delcros, 1984) Unrestored Bugatti Type 44 on an advertising poster for a temporary barn find museum in the French city of Sarlat, which hosted 26 of the "Sleeping Beauties" between 1989 and 1990 Unrestored 1941 Lincoln Continental in a junk shop diorama within the Sarlat museum (photo Edmund Nankivell, 1989) Unrestored 1951 Ferrari 340 America Berlinetta Ghia in a temple diorama within the Sarlat museum (photo Edmund Nankivell, 1989) French château, which still hosts ten of the "Sleeping Beauties" in unrestored condition (photo Kay Hottendorff, 2007) Unrestored 1937 Cord 812 Supercharger Custom Berline between two other unrestored "Sleeping Beauties" (photo Kay Hottendorff, 2007) The still unrestored Tatra 600 Tatraplan from the "Sleeping Beauties" garden, meanwhile stored dry (photo Kay Hottendorff, 2007) The most famous "Sleeping Beauty", a meanwhile restored 1935 Bugatti Type 57 Ventoux, during the presentation of the Dutch book in the famous Louwman Collection, NL (photo Kay Hottendorff, 2008) Some of the example photos shown here didn't even make it into the book. The new book contains a selection of more than 250 photos from all stages of the collection and the single cars, covering almost seven decades. Have fun with the backgrounds of a famous collection, the true story about it and the solved mystery about "The Fate of the Sleeping Beauties".
