In 1967, Larry Klairmont bought his first keepsake car, a 1951 Rolls-Royce.
By 1974, he had added a few more cars to his stock, including a 1946 Lincoln Mark II and a pair of other Lincolns from 1957 and 1965.
Years later, “he was buying cars by the dozens,” said his son, Alfred Klairmont.
At its peak, the collection totaled nearly 600 cars.
And they weren’t just ordinary cars.
They include a gold-leaf plated 1920 Pierce Arrow; a custom blue and silver 1983 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur decked out in 1 million Swarovski crystals; and a futuristic, remote-control prototype 1956 Golden Sahara II with one-of-a-kind glowing tires. He even owned a replica Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine and a 1960 “Munsters” Coffinmobile.
Cars came and went, and Klairmont stored them all for decades, hidden in a half-mile long industrial building in Belmont Cragin, which became the Klairmont Kollections Automotive Museum. For years, the museum was private, but in 2019, Klairmont opened it to the public.
The museum has remained open since Larry Klairmont died in 2021 at age 94, but it will close next month and his collection of cars and memorabilia will be sold off.
Bidders can purchase any of the 275 vehicles and more than 1,000 pieces of road art and automobilia during the Sept. 19-21 no-reserve auction overseen by Mecum Auctions at the Klairmont Kollections Automotive Museum, 3117 N. Knox Ave. An auction preview will be held Sept. 13-14.
“Now, the general collector car world is excited because they get to buy something that they thought they couldn’t have before, and now it’s available again, so it’s a great-size auction with a lot of excitement already,” said Gus Kozar an assistant at Mecum Auctions.
Mecum Auctions, headed by Dana Mecum, is no stranger to special sales.
It oversaw the sale of comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s Porsche 917K that was driven by Steve McQueen in the 1971 movie “Le Mans.” That car sold for an estimated $25 million. The auction house also handled the $3.74 million sale of the Ford Mustang GT driven by McQueen in the 1968 movie “Bullitt.”
‘Automobilia heaven’ with ‘stunning attractions’
From the outside, the Klairmont Kollections museum looks like any other brick industrial building. But packed inside its two floors are one-of-a-kind and antique vehicles — and full-scale model planes — surrounded by automobilia, and some on elaborate displays with corresponding art.
“This museum was an incredible show place, loaded with unique, gorgeous collectible cars and all sorts of memorabilia on the walls and stunning attractions alongside the cars on the floor,” Alfred Klairmont said. “Anybody who visited this museum was absolutely floored at what a wonderful car collection and museum this was.”
Larry Klairmont was a World War II Marine veteran and founder of Imperial Realty Co., which is among Chicago’s largest property management firms, but his car collection was his passion.
“He just dedicated himself in his later life to decorating the museum and filling the museum with unique and collectible cars. He enjoyed going to auctions and buying cars, and he just loved being in the museum,” said Alfred Klairmont, current president and chief executive of Imperial Realty.
The elder Klairmont was known for being direct and commanding in a room. He was meticulous with his cars, restoring them and maintaining them all.
One of the few people he allowed in when the museum was still private was Lou Costabile, an automotive YouTuber based in Elgin who has traveled across the U.S. and Canada interviewing vehicle owners and reviewing their collections.
Costabile, in essence, gave the public its first glimpse of the Klairmont Kollection Automotive Museum through his dozens of videos, including a 26-minute clip highlighting every vehicle in the collection.
“It has this amazing quality of surprising you and seeing something when you go through these doors in this warehouse of automobilia heaven that you’ll never see again and let alone under one roof,” Costabile said.
The ‘Larry’s Legacy Auction’ highlights
The Golden Sahara II, designed by Hollywood legend George Barris and featuring gold accents and special translucent-luminous Goodyear tires, headlines the auction along with the luxurious 1926 Rickenbacker Eight Super Sport, which is “believed to be” the last of its kind, according to Mecum Auctions. The Rickenbacker was built by WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker and features an airplane hood ornament and copper metalwork. Another Rickenbacker sold for $946,000 at a 2014 auction.
Among the hundreds of others are a replica Batmobile; Cadillacs; Corvettes; a 1919 Ford model fire engine; a 1972 Lamborghini Espada; Mustangs; a 1969 Oldsmobile Hurst/Olds; Rolls-Royces; race cars; Vespa scooters; and much more.
“It’s one of the greatest car collections that I’ve ever seen,” Costabile said. “Larry would collect a Chicago 1920 Model T police car, and you’re like, ‘Where do you find something like that? And why is it in such great condition?’”
The road art pieces and memorabilia for sale include metal signs, neon signs, engine displays, bicycles, replica jukeboxes, Batman statues, a Ronald McDonald statue, model planes and miniature cars.
“It’s a very significant move [because of] the size — 300 cars and 1,000-plus road art pieces, because it stems from a private collection, which is overwhelming with that amount, in addition to a non-for-profit museum type setting to have all this stuff and be offered to the community,” Kozar said.
H eadded the museum board is developing a nonprofit foundation in honor of Larry Klairmont that will benefit youth educational programs.
Proceeds from the auction will go to the soon-to-be established foundation, a Mecum spokesperson said.
