Ralph Lauren bought a Ferrari 250 GTO for $300,000 which exploded in value by 230x and he even hung it in the Louvre

Ralph Lauren is one of the few lucky owners of the Ferrari 250 GTO, one of the rarest Ferraris ever made, and the most expensive.

He bought it for just $300,000 and, over the years, he watched its value go up like crazy.

Other owners had similar experiences, of course.

But there’s something Lauren did that no one else has.

The key difference between the 250 and the 250 GTO owned by Ralph Lauren

We often automatically associate the 250 name with the GTO, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.

The 250 GTO is very difficult to buy, and it costs eight figures.

For example, the most expensive Ferrari in the world – and most expensive car in the world before the record was broken – is a 250.

But, for years, Ferrari used the ‘250’ nameplate for so many different models because the name was simply based on the displacement of a single cylinder.

As a result, there are several other models called the 250 that are worth a lot less than that.

We’re still talking about a lot of money.

But while most 250s are worth either six or seven figures, the 250 GTO is the only one that’s worth eight figures.

The other confirmed owners of a Ferrari 250 GTO

Only 36 250 GTOs have ever been built, but the list of known owners is relatively short.

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason also owns one, and two other ‘famous’ 250 GTOs are owned by Ferrari collector David Lee and Aston Martin F1’s co-owner Lawrence Stroll.

Radio host Chris Evans also owned one at some point, as did American computer engineer and collector Greg Whitten.

Through the years, several attempts to locate all 36 chassis numbers have been made.

At the time of writing, all cars have been located.

Aside from the ones we mentioned, most 250 GTOs are owned by billionaires who generally fly under the radar.

The sort of people whose name doesn’t ring a bell, but their company’s name does.

How Ralph Lauren ended up lending his car to the Louvre

In 2011, Paris’s world-famous Musée des Arts Décoratifs – a section of the Louvre – hosted a dedicated, standalone exhibition titled L’Art de l’Automobile.

The museum’s curator specifically chose 17 vehicles from Ralph Lauren’s private collection to prove that the peak era of automotive design – specifically the 1930s through the 1960s – was art.

To make the point, they ‘hung’ his 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO using a complex pedestal.

Lauren bought the car in the 1980s for $300,000, but it was already worth millions of dollars when the exhibition took place.

We bet his heart must’ve skipped a beat or two when he saw what they were doing with it.

Timeline of Ferrari