A prominent Texas lawyer and car collector bought up a chunk of Rolls Royce automobiles as they sat on the auction block at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance auction in California. The seller, 82 year-old Columbus developer Richard J. Solove, put 13 Rolls Royce cars up for bid to raise money for the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, as well as Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The full slate of cars went for $14.3, just under the $15 million Solove expected to fetch for them. Eight of the vehicles, including all of the Silver Ghosts on the block except for one, were bought by billionaire Houston trailawyer John O'Quinn, who came by his success in high-profile cases such as Texas' $17.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry, lawsuits against breast-implant manufacturers, and most famously (or infamously) lately, Virgie Arthur, the mother of Anna Nicole Smith's, as she fought for custody of Smith's daughter.
Along with his 1903 Ford Model A, Batmobile, and cars used by President Franklin Roosevelt and Pope John Paul II, O'Quinn plans to open a car museum in Houston in 2009.
[Source: The Columbus Dispatch]
