In a message dated 5/20/2005 2:48:16 PM Pacific Daylight Time, OROBOYZ@aol.com writes:
It's true, some of you guys don't get it...
Sheeeeesh! What's to get? If a mint '62 Ferrari Testarossa were pulled out of a time capsule, and if the right two guys had had good a good year in the market, the bidding could go anywhere. Anywhere. No one would say, "Gee, I thought Bugattis were the Holy Grail." (For more on a related subject, see the art frenzy of the 80's.)
As far as Confente goes, at the risk of taking some abuse, I think that his work is the object of veneration among a certain cult, rather than among tifosi in general. I'm not saying that veneration is misplaced -- far from it.
I'm glad that my own interests are so much more humble. That DeRosa was beautiful and rare and .... original. Original. Perfect. As I own riders, not collection pieces, I'd probably just as soon find a Motorola Merckx, bearing the scars of having been tossed in and out of team vans all over Europe, perhaps ridden by an anonymous water-carrier, rather than a garage queen ridden occasionally by a dilettante (in the US-English sense of the word, not the French sense). As a matter of fact, I'm not sure why I had Brian paint/restore my 70's Colnago Super. It's now a garage queen, and it may be up for sale soon. On the other hand, someone will be painting my old friend Albert, as my wife calls my Traut. After a few decades of hard use, countless races, countless centuries, countless passes, that's just maintenance. And respect.
Peter Bridge
blathering after a two hour climbing ride, in the steep hills and the sun of
eastern
SDCA