While there is plenty about James Bond that is iconic, few are more so than his car. Specifically, the tricked-out Aston Martin DB5 that Q introduces Bond (Sean Connery) to in 1964’s Goldfinger. The car had everything: revolving license plates, front wing machine guns, a feature that deployed a smoke screen, and even the ability to release an oil slick to make pursuit of the vehicle even harder. The car was not just stylish, it was cool but it turns out the iconic vehicle’s biggest adventure was not onscreen with Bond, but off screen instead — and it’s a story every bit as wild as a James Bond movie.
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The wild adventure of James Bond’s Aston Marton DB5 begins not with its onscreen exploits in Goldfinger and Thunderball, but instead with what happened after those films. Four of the vehicles were made in total — two for the film and two for promotional purposes. Of the two made for filming only one, chassis number DP/2161/1 got all the cool gadgets. But after filming, the car was stripped of its gadgetry. The car make an appearance in another movie, 1981’s The Cannonball Run, but was eventually sold, leaving the big screen behind.
The vehicle was purchased by businessman Anthony Pugliese in 1986 at auction for $275,000 and kept in storage at a hangar at Florida’s Boca Raton Airport until June 1997. On the night of June 18, 1997, the car was stolen from the secured hanger leaving behind only tire tracks from where the vehicle had been dragged for loading onto whatever vehicle was used to take it away — some think it was a wrecker, others think perhaps a cargo plane. And from there it just vanished. For twenty-five years.
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After a quarter century of being missing and just as much time spent hunting for it, the Bond car was confirmed to have been located in a “private setting” in the Middle East in 2022. The vehicle’s exact location has not been released, though it has been reported that an anonymous authenticator did verify that the vehicle spotted does indeed match the chassis number of the missing car. It is not believed that the car’s current owner knew it was stolen when they acquired it and, to date, the vehicle has not been recovered.
How Did the Bond Car End up in the Middle East?
While the vehicle has been located, there are still plenty of questions about the whole saga and perhaps the biggest one is exactly how it ended up in the Middle East. While the details have yet to be revealed, there have been no shortage of theories. One of the earliest and most prominent theories was that Pugliese arranged the heist himself as part of an insurance scam. That theory posits that while Pugliese purchased the car for $275,000 by 1997 it was much more valuable so he hired a team to steal the vehicle so he could collect the insurance. The theory went so far as to suggest that the car was then dropped into the Atlantic Ocean from a plane so that it would never be recovered. While Pugliese did receive $4.2 million from the insurance company following the vehicle’s theft, those seeking to debunk said theory have pointed out that Pugliese could have pretty easily sold the iconic car for much more. Pugliese himself denied the allegations and hasn’t seriously been considered a suspect in the heist.
Another theory is that the vehicle was simply stolen by a very rich collector who decided to acquire the vehicle Bond-villain style and has been keeping it hidden away for the past two decades. This theory, while interesting and very in keeping with the whole James Bond of it all, doesn’t really account for the idea that the theoretical rich collector could have just made Pugliese an offer and also doesn’t really account for the belief by Art Recovery International’s Christopher Marinello that the vehicle’s current possessor may have been unaware it was stolen. The final, and most likely theory is that whoever stole the vehicle did so with the intent to sell it either on the black market — a little unlikely due to the car’s well-known status — or to a private buyer who may not have been made aware that the vehicle was stolen in order for them to buy it.
Whatever route the DB5 took, to date it remains somewhere in the Middle East, but hopefully it will be resolved soon.
“I’m hopeful that the possessor will come forward voluntarily before I have to make an announcement,” Marinello said back in 2021. “It’s my policy to give the possessors of stolen and looted objects every opportunity to do the right thing. I don’t believe the current possessor knew the car was stolen when he or she acquired it. Now they do know, I think they should make every effort to have a discreet confidential discussion about how we clear the title to this iconic vehicle.”
You can see the Aston Martin DB5 in action in Goldfinger, available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.
