Collectors

When a small but powerful 1826 painting by Corot of a craggy rock formation came up for auction three years ago at Sotheby's in New York, Getty curator Scott Schaefer was working with a museum trustee who wanted to buy it. When the trustee was outbid, Schaefer tracked down the winning bidders and was "absolutely shocked," he said, to find that they lived so close: Brian and Eva Sweeney, a Manhattan Beach couple who were quickly and quietly building...

If you're on the verge of buying a new car that's fast -- but not exactly practical -- here's some intel that could tip the scales. Hagerty Insurance, the world's largest insurer of classic cars, is out with its annual "hot list" of cars that could one day become sought-after by collectors. To make the list, Hagerty said, the mass-produced cars needed be new for the 2013 model year and cost less than $100,000. The list spans a wide range of prices: At the top is the SRT Viper, with a starting price of $97,395, while the cheapest is the $23,700 Ford Focus ST. Photos: Hagerty's hot list of 10 future collector cars Here's the complete list of the cars and their starting prices: SRT Viper: $97,395 Chevy Corvette 427 convertible: $75,925 Audi RS5: $68,900 Porsche Cayman S: $63,800 Chevy Camaro ZL1 convertible: $59,545 Tesla Model S: $58,570 Mini John Cooper Works GP: $39,950 Subaru BRZ: $25,495 Volkswagen GTI: $23,995 Ford Focus ST: $23,700 Highway 1 has tested a number of these cars, so click through the gallery to see them up close and read our reviews.

A pair of classic Ferraris sold for more than $8 million apiece. The original Batmobile fetched more than $4.6 million. A racing Porsche from 1959 brought in $3.1 million. At a series of Arizona classic car auctions last week, these and hundreds of other cars sold for an average of more than $100,000 - a big jump over the average of about $85,000 last year, according to Hagerty Insurance Agency, which insures and tracks values of classic cars. The total take for the auctions in Scottsdale and Phoenix jumped 22% from last year, to nearly $224 million.

WASHINGTON - A Van Nuys debt collection operation and the people who ran it agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle federal allegations that they improperly bullied consumers to get them to pay overdue bills and deceived clients about fees. The settlement ends a case in which a federal judge in Los Angeles found the defendants liable for $33.8 million in fines and penalties. The defendants, however, had no more money to pay the judgment, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. The deal, stemming from a 2011 case against Forensic Case Management Services Inc., owner David M. Hynes II and other officers, permanently bars the operators from the debt collection business.

If $8 million sounds like too much for a 1960 Ferrari, perhaps a 1958 model in the range of $5.5 million to $7 million better suits your budget. Such are the choices the world's wealthiest car collectors will face this month in Arizona. Every year, buyers, sellers and car nuts descend on Scottsdale and Phoenix for one of the largest gatherings of car auctions in the country. "This is it. This is the big one," McKeel Hagerty says of the week of auctions. Hagerty is founder and chief executive of Hagerty Insurance Agency, which insures and tracks sale prices of classic cars.

Interested in purchasing a hulking, gun-carrying vehicle that was nicknamed the "meat-chopper" in World War II? How about a rare 12-ton towing vehicle designed to carry heavy artillery for the Nazis? Need an amphibious truck?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, you're in luck. On Saturday, Auctions America is helping the historic National Military History Centermuseum in Auburn, Ind., sell more than 80 vintage German, French, British and U.S military vehicles.

"The Collection" is an effective if ultimately disappointing sequel to the 2009 grunge-horror flick "The Collector," both films directed by Marcus Dunstan and written by Dunstan and Patrick Melton. (The new film's poster brags that the duo wrote "Saw" sequels 4-to-7. Make of that what you will.) Here, a superhuman psychopath wreaks havoc on a city, spiriting away victims for crude experiments. When he abducts a rich man's daughter (Emma Fitzpatrick), a team of hired guns grab Arkin, the only guy who's ever escaped from the killer, to help rescue her. Josh Stewart reprises his role from the first film, but he's also familiar from a small, standout role as a henchman in "The Dark Knight Rises.

ANREN, China - From floor to ceiling, wall to wall, the narrow entry corridor at the Red Era Daily Necessities Museum is bathed in a blood-red light. There is no map, no brochure, no choice of direction; the architecture forces visitors forward, over glowing panels labeled by year: 1966. 1967. 1968. A few dozen paces later: 1976. A roar comes from a sea of Red Guards in Tiananmen Square, chanting rabidly, captured in a film clip from the era. Mao Tse-tung strides into the frame, whipping the crowd into a frenzy.

WASHINGTON - The nation's largest debt-collection companies will face federal regulatory exams for the first time, starting in January, to determine if they are complying with consumer protection laws. Among the laws that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would enforce would be ones that require employees to identify themselves properly and that prohibit the use of "obscene or profane language" in collecting overdue bills. The new oversight comes as the bureau, which was created by the 2010 financial reform law, continues to expand its authority beyond banks.