They finally finished the construction of the BART entrance canopy at Market and Drumm, the Cable-Car turnaround.
By Kathleen Pender, Freelance Writer Feb 6, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle
A fleet of 105 classic cars in San Francisco amassed mainly by the Academy of Art University’s late president Richard A. Stephens is going on the auction block next week.
Stephens, who died in 2017 at age 92, took over the academy from his father and with his daughter, Elisa Stephens, vastly expanded the private, for-profit university and the family’s San Francisco real estate empire.
The auction comes at a time when students and many car collectors are more interested in newer cars, even if that means the 1970s and ’80s instead of the 1920s and ’30s.
The cars’ estimated values range from $8,000 to $12,000 for a 1934 Austin panel truck to as much as $1.5 million for a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing coupe.
About half of the vehicles date from before World War II. All will be sold with no reserve, which means no minimum price. Broad Arrow, the company handling the auction, estimated that it could bring in somewhere around $13 million.
Elisa Stephens, the university’s president since 1992 and owner, “shared a passion” for classic cars with her father, but wants to “revamp the collection” in favor of newer models — and the best way to do that is “to sell everything and start from scratch,” said Caroline Cassini, a senior car specialist with Broad Arrow Auctions who studied auto restoration at the academy.
Fleet of classic cars is up for auction in S.F. — including a $1.5 million Mercedes-Benz
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