Now's  your chance to get a close-up look at the world's most expensive classic car: the 1936 Bugatti Type 57sc Atlantic. Fashion impresario Ralph Lauren owns one. As does Peter Mullin, a collector with a particular love of 1930s French cars.

So valued is the car that its most recent 2010 sale value has never been officially disclosed. All we know is that the 1936 Bugatti Type 57sc Atlantic is priced at above $30m, and anywhere up to $40m.

Collectors had a chance to get a closer look at the rare car at last week's Paris Rétromobile event.

Interviewed at the event, Mr Mullin compared his Bugatti to Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Many of Rétromobile's 75,000-plus visitors may have agreed: according to the event's organisers, a significant proportion of them were art collectors.

Little wonder when classic cars are so often referred to as "rolling works or art".

Although many cars weren't for sale at the event, those that were included a Ferrari 250 GT once owned by filmmaker Roger Vadim which brought $5.8m.