Start of July showed the Amsterdam police a Ferrari from the IJ that was reported missed 26 years ago. The demolition company that has to disassemble the luxury sports car is now trying to save the car. “They have recreated an Amsterdam canal in the ARTIS aquarium? The car would fit perfectly there!”. ARTIS says he will talk to the demolition worker.
Divers in training from the fire brigade bounced mid-June by chance on the car during an exercise in the IJ in Amsterdam. A month later, the police pulled the car out of the mud with great effort. After an investigation, the car appeared to have been stolen, but the crime was now barred. How the car ended up in the IJ will remain a mystery.
The Ferrari Mondial from 1987 eventually ended up with car dismantling company De Ooyevaar, which is commissioned to recycle the car. The Blokker company in Noord-Holland has a contract with the police and disassembles seized vehicles more often, says Lowie Hoedt Jr., who runs De Ooyevaar with his father.
Hoedt has to destroy or dismantle the car according to agreements with the police. But the entrepreneur does not get it, he says in conversation with NU.nl. He would prefer to “return the car to the city of Amsterdam” by donating it to a museum or other institution. And the police would be willing to make an exception, says Hoedt. The police were not available for comment on Saturday.
Scrap yard flooded with reactions to mysterious Ferrari
After it leaked that the car would be scrapped at Hoedt, he got a lot of interest from journalists from home and abroad. “Even in America, the topic of conversation is. I find that very special,” says Hoedt. “The nice thing is that no one knows who the car belongs to or what happened to it.”
The owner decided to postpone the demolition of the car and temporarily exhibited the car on the premises of his company. He posted photos of the car on Facebook and the reactions of people who wanted to save the car quickly poured in.
Some people are willing to pay a lot for a part of the red Mondial. For example, someone offered 1,500 euros to convert the engine block to a coffee table, says Hoedt. Dozens of people have now traveled to Blokker to see the Ferrari with their own eyes.
“My father is more level-headed about it,” says 30-year-old Hoedt. “He says: ‘Nice that publicity, but after that it can be flat’. I myself am more emotional. Let’s first see if we can still give it a second chance.”
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Photo: Lowie Hoedt Jr.
Car in place underwater in ARTIS
The entrepreneur prefers to see the car displayed “as a decoration” in the aquarium of ARTIS zoo, where a section is dedicated to the underwater life of the Amsterdam canals. The idea was suggested by someone on social media and it quickly got him excited.
“The mystery and story really appeals to people. That makes the difference for us. We actually think that this car should survive in its entirety,” says Hoedt.
An ARTIS spokesperson announced on Saturday morning that he would discuss the proposal with Hoedt.
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