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GREENWICH, Conn. A 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster that sat in a Greenwich barn more than 30 years could break an auction record when it goes on the block Sunday in Pebble Beach, Calif., according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Mercedes is expected to fetch at least $10 million and could break the world record of $16.4 million for an auctioned car. Thought to be one of only a dozen such cars left in the world, the roadster belonged to Baroness Gisela von Krieger and was purchased for just $7,000.
Von Krieger was a member of Prussian nobility who had an affair with a Jewish Englishman around the time of the rise of the Nazis in Germany. Von Krieger and her mother fled to Switzerland during the war along with the car.
The von Kriegers moved to the U.S. after World War II, living in Manhattan and Greenwich. The family moved back to Switzerland in 1958, but the car remained hidden in a barn at their Greenwich estate until Gisela's death in 1989.
The car has been owned by New Hampshire businessman Lee Herrington since von Krieger's heirs sold it in 1994.
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