One of only two remaining World War Two Spitfire Mk 1 models restored to the original specification and still flying, is to be auctioned in July to raise money for the leading wild cat conservation organisation, Panthera, as well as the RAF Benevolent Fund.
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The carefully restored Spitfire Mk1
that could make up to £2.5 million
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Both iconic aeroplanes currently belong to Thomas S Kaplan, American entrepreneur, natural resource investor, philanthropist and art collector, and founder of Panthera with his wife, Daphne.
As part of a hugely generous gift, Spitfire P9374 will be sold at Christie’s, while the only other Mk 1 Spitfire, N3200, will be going to the Imperial War Museum Duxford.
One of the most instantly recognisable silhouettes in the air, the Spitfire is not just a thing of beauty but a war machine that helped save Britain in 1940 and ultimately to win the war.
Of his restoration project and the auction Kaplan says: “When my great childhood friend, Simon Marsh, and I embarked upon this project, it was to pay homage to those who Churchill called "the Few", the pilots who were all that stood between Hitler's darkness and what was left of civilisation.
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