SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Dubbed "the most historically significant automobile ever offered for public sale," a 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen failed to sell at auction.
A $7 million bid didn't meet the anonymous seller's undisclosed minimum price, so negotiations with the bidder will continue privately now that the auction has closed.
The “Super Mercedes" comes with a dark color, and apparently an even darker past.
Worldwide Auctioneers claims the old car was "ordered by, built for, and used by" Adolf Hitler.
"If the original Hitlerian provenance of this Mercedes can be set aside, if only momentarily, surviving examples of the Mercedes-Benz 770 “Grosser,” or “Super Mercedes,” remain quite likely the world’s greatest achievement in terms of automotive design, engineering, and construction," Worldwide wrote.
At its construction, the auction house said this car's built-in security measures were "impressive and extensive." The vehicle was fitted with bulletproof glass and armor plating, the auction house said, to provide "maximum protection" for Hitler. The car was capable of reaching speeds of 100 mph.
"Assigned Serial Number 189744, this 770K was intended from the outset as a guest car for Hitler’s garage when heads of friendly states visited," the company wrote.
According to Worldwide, the Mercedes was seized by Allied forces in 1945. It was for a time used by U.S. Army Military Police in France, and in parades by a Veterans of Foreign Wars group.
In 1983, the car was bought by Ralph Engelstad and became part of his "famed Imperial Palace Auto Collection" at the Imperial Palace Casino in Las Vegas, according to the auction house.
The auction house said the car did not "choose its user or its use," and any discussion of it should recognize what it stands for -- besides just its negative history.
"Above all, the very survival and continued existence of this motorcar today serves to remind humankind of the final and inevitable Allied victory over the evil that Hitler and his Nazi party represented in its most virulent and destructive forms only some eight decades ago."
The car was expected to fetch millions at auction. According to Worldwide, 10 percent of the proceeds generated from the sale would go to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the " largest international Jewish human rights organizations."
