Bidding Goodby : Autos: Curator reminisces about 26 years of caring for collection of antique cars as the prized automobiles are auctioned off by Sotheby’s.

In the city of freeways and money, there are plenty of car collectors but few who employed a curator. That rare yet so very L.A. title was held for 26 years by James B. Duffy III, who lovingly and painstakingly took care of the late Willet H. Brown’s collection of antique cars, celebrity-owned cars and rare sports cars.

A ninth-generation Californian (Hollywood star Leo Carrillo was a cousin), Duffy restored his first car, a royal blue 1906 Autocar Model X Roadster, at his parents’ Hancock Park house--painting it and taking it apart and hanging the fenders on the fence to dry.

He has never wanted to do anything else. His father hoped that Duffy, a USC graduate, would grow out of his car obsession but that didn’t happen. For 2 1/2 decades, Duffy helped Brown put together what’s considered one of the finest private car collections in the country. As owner of the well-known Hillcrest Motors in Beverly Hills, Brown was purveyor of Cadillacs to the stars (when stars bought Cadillacs) but his own tastes ran the gamut from roadsters to Ferraris to carousel horses. Brown’s quirky collection even included popcorn carts and a 1948 Helms bakery truck. Brown paid for it, but Duffy had full reign over the collection, which was kept in a warehouse in Culver City.

“It was my toy room,” Duffy said.

So it was with sadness as well as some excitement that he watched raptly as Brown’s collection of cars was auctioned off by Sotheby’s on Saturday at the Petersen Automotive Museum.

There went his favorite sports car, the 1972 Ferrari Daytona that he and Brown drove to Carmel. (Jay Leno made an early bid on it, but the car went to another bidder for $189,500.) There went Joan Crawford’s huge glossy black 1933 Cadillac.

Brown, who was also a founding executive of the Mutual Broadcasting System, died in October, 1993, at age 88. His family eventually decided to sell his collection at auction.

“I’m just hoping everyone will enjoy them as much as I did,” said Duffy, who was also watching himself get auctioned out of a job.

Not that he worried that the cars weren’t going to good homes. “They’re not going to pay this kind of money and run them down the street and junk them,” Duffy said.

No indeed. Around him strolled some of the wealthiest, most devoted car enthusiasts in the West, many eyeing the historic 1948 Ferrari Barchetta, the first of its model.

“I remember seeing this car when I was in high school” said movie producer Ned Tanen as he walked around the Barchetta. “I thought, ‘I don’t care if I ever have a woman, I want that car.’ ”

Yesterday he was just an admirer. The anonymous winning bidder paid $800,000. The auction brought in a total of $3.9 million, according to Sotheby’s officials.

Duffy scanned the crowd of about 500, many of them old car collector friends. Elegant in dark slacks and sweater, he could barely walk from car to car without meeting another car collector who shook his hand, patted him on the shoulder, sometimes offering condolences on losing control of his prized babies. More often, spotting something they liked, they asked him, “Does it run?”

“He lives and breathes, eats and sleeps the cars he takes care of,” said Richard Messer, director of the Petersen Museum.

For Duffy--and car devotees everywhere--car restoration is akin to art restoration. Duffy oversaw all the restorations starting with the research and the tearing down of the car to its frame. Then he coordinated a team of painters, upholsterers, mechanics and machinists to bring the car back to its original condition.

“My forte is I do the detailing and the master assembly afterward,” said Duffy who would painstakingly line up doorjambs, put on bumpers, scrutinize for scratches and rub it all out to a high gloss. “It’s like putting a house together,” said Duffy, 58. “If you’re a restorer, you’re kind of an architect.”

On Saturday, he paused in front of the 1910 Isotta-Fraschini. “If I could have any car here, I’d have this one,” he said quietly. The car sold for $365,000. But no one could buy Duffy’s memories of joy-riding down Wilshire Boulevard in the car with Willet Brown early one morning. He smiled wistfully.

“We were just cackling down the Miracle Mile.”