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Art Deco Collection Finds a Parking Spot

Mullin Automotive Museum, Oxnard (closed since 2024) 
About 30 deluxe French Art Deco cars from Peter Mullin's collection have been donated to the Petersen Automotive Museum. Mullin, an insurance magnate and longtime Petersen board member, established his own car museum in Oxnard (now closed) and engaged Norman Foster to design a private museum for his collection in West Oxfordshire (never happened). Mullin died in 2023. The following year four prime cars were donated to the Petersen while the rest of the collection was dispersed at auction. It was assumed that was the end of the story.

It's now been announced that the Mullin Family Foundation has given two dozen additional cars to the Petersen. The gift spans the marques Hispano-Suiza, Bugatti, Voisin, Delahaye, Peugeot, and Talbot Lago, and covers the period from 1922 to 1951.

Starting today (July 18), a new Mullin Family Gallery within the museum's Vault will house a selection of the gift. (A guided tour of the Vault is available only with a separate admission.) Planned for 2028 is an exhibition of 30 vehicles from the Mullin donation.

A few blocks down Wilshire, LACMA's Geffen Galleries is showing a Raymond Loewy-designed Studebaker Avanti. When art museums show cars, they generally present them as industrial design—an attempt to package modernity for the masses. The Mullin collection represents an older tradition of handcrafted beauty for the very, very wealthy. Within that remit, the Mullin cars have few rivals.
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Ted Gallagher NYC said…
Understood: The gifted "cars have few rivals."
Wow..that's 58 cars to the Petersen!
I know nothing of cars. I wonder how the cars sent to auction compare and contrast in quality and rarity with those that were gifted.
July 18, 2026 at 12:20 PM
Anonymous said…
Very bad at math here, how many cars total did Mr. Mullin give to the Petersen museum - after death plus previous donations?
Article started with "about 30" not "30"
July 18, 2026 at 12:25 PM
William Poundstone said…
Sorry, my math was a little vague because the Petersen's statements have been. The 2028 exhibition is to show "nearly 30 vehicles." I infer that the new gift includes at least a couple dozen cars in addition to the original four. It could be more. I don't know how the auctioned cars compare, but they weren't dross: An auctioned 1938 Bugatti went for $6.6 million. But there are at least four Bugattis in the gift. In view of Mullin's long association with the Petersen and his own museum, I have to think that he and his family reserved for the Petersen the cars that would make the greatest impact in the collection and future exhibitions.
July 18, 2026 at 4:16 PM
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