A few days ago, we told you about the auction of Richard Solove’s unique collection of Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts – one of every model – to benefit his favorite charity, the cancer research center at Ohio State (which just happens to be named for him).  The auction total was $14.3 million.

Well, it seems there’s more to the story.

Solove told the Wall Street Journal that he had been approached by a “Texas plaintiff’s attorney” prior to the auction.  The tort lawyer offered Solove $10,000,000 for the cars – plus, the lawyer would donate $5,000,000 to the charity of Solove’s designation.

That was a pretty good offer, as the pre-auction estimate said the cars would sell for between $8 million to $11 million.

But Solove turned it down.  Not because it wasn’t enough.  He just felt it wouldn’t be fair to others who planed to participate in the auction, some from as far away as China and the Middle East.

So who bought the cars?

The plaintiff’s lawyer from Texas bought every one of them, except for the 1910 model.  The collection Mr. Solove spent thirty years putting together will, pretty much, stay together.

It will not do, however, to feel sad for Mr. Solove.

To fill the void created by selling his beloved Rolls-Royce collection, he’s ordered two new Phantoms, one an extended length version and the other the convertible version (which hasn’t even been officially introduced, yet). 

But there’s still that nagging mystery: why didn’t the lawyer buy the 1910?  Maybe had one already.