A rare Alfa Romeo brings an unusual tale to the Pebble Beach auction block.

THE 1938 ALFA ROMEO 8C 2900B LUNGO SPIDER is described in terms such as “incomparable” and “unequivocally the finest sports car built prior to WWII.” As a young enthusiast, David Gooding, president of the auction house Gooding & Company made a trek just to look at the car, chassis number 412027, one of five known to exist. At the time it was in the possession of a Philadelphia collector.

“I was mesmerized by it,” he recalls.

In July of 2022 the glamorous vehicle, valued at $23 million, was stolen – from the parking lot of a Holiday Inn Express along I-95 outside of the small town of Dillon, South Carolina.

The Alfa’s story doesn’t start there, of course. Records related to its first decade of existence were lost to the Suez Crisis of 1956. About the same time, the car surfaced in Iowa, where a man named Jack Albert reportedly woke up, still bleary-eyed from a night of chaotic revelry, to find its registration papers in his pocket.

Yet the theft was the Alfa’s most unusual turn. As Gooding explains, “You just don’t worry about world-famous, trackable cars being stolen.”

But the coveted classic was not the victim of a thoroughly planned, white-gloved heist. At the time of its disappearance, the car sat in a trailer hooked behind a Ford F350 pickup truck. On its way for some restoration work, the multimillion-dollar car could, unseen in its hauler, be any run-of-the-mill sedan. Criminals had already taken three other vehicles – trucks, trailers and all – from that hotel.

Dillon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sara Albarri told reporters at the time that those involved simply hot-wired the pickup truck and drove off.

A story about the incident in Forbes made the culprits’ predicament clear: “Trying to unload a pre-WWII exotic isn’t like getting rid of a stolen Acura Integra.”

“I would love to see the expression on the thieves’ faces when they opened the door,” Gooding says – although that is speaking retrospectively. When he first heard the news, Gooding was stunned, along with the rest of the collector car world. “Our thought was, ‘I hope the car is OK.’”

The story has a happy ending. The prized ’38 Alfa Romeo, in pristine condition, will roll across the block at the Gooding & Company auction in Pebble Beach, which this year takes place Aug. 16-17.

Gooding compares the car to famous pieces of art – “Mona Lisa” and “The Scream,” both of which were stolen and recovered.

“That’s part of their story,” he explains. “I think it makes it distinctive, adds another layer.”

But Gooding is quick to point out that this particular model doesn’t need a rich or lurid background. Streamlined and rakish in style, the 2900B was also technologically on the cutting edge – supercharged, with twin overhead cams, independent suspension and more. In competition trim, these cars were still winning road races into the 1950s, including at Pebble Beach.

“The great thing about these cars is they are among the most beautiful and they are the most advanced and sophisticated of their era,” he adds. “It’s the best car you could get at the time and one of the best cars ever created.”

AFTER THE CAR WAS REPORTED STOLEN, the FBI joined the search. The insurance company AIG paid the $23 million claim and took ownership of the missing vehicle.

Investigators had determined the Alfa was likely still somewhere in the Carolinas. Personal items of the truck driver – who at the time of the heist was presumably sleeping in the Holiday Inn – had been discovered dumped in a ditch in back of a Lumberton, North Carolina convenience store.

“I honestly don’t think they knew what was inside the trailer,” deputy Albarri told reporters in November of 2022, when AIG tried to spur the search by offering a $50,000 reward for information about the car’s whereabouts.

Just over a year later, AIG received good news. Agents from the FBI and ATF traced the car to a remote North Carolina garage. It was stored – unharmed – with 15 other vehicles a theft ring had plucked from hotel parking lots.

“It was right after we learned it was recovered that we started chasing the car,” Gooding says. The insurance company was looking to recover the money invested in the Alfa. “We found each other,” Gooding adds. “I jumped at the chance.” And with that, the one-of-a-kind 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider makes the trek to the Gooding & Company auction block, its first time under the gavel.

“It’s super wild,” Gooding says. “It’s a spectacular car, even without the story.”