Don't Cry For the Owner of This Famous Cadillac

If you’re fabulously wealthy and have a thing for musicals, get thyself to the UK right now.

Bonhams auction house will be selling a 1951 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 Limousine at the March 20 Goodwood Members’ Meeting Sale, but this isn’t your average, run-of-the-mill Fleetwood 75 Limousine.

Oh, no. This Caddy was the presidential car for former First Lady of Argentina María Eva Duarte de Perón, also known as Evita (also known as the lady from that Madonna movie your girlfriend made you watch in the ’90s).

We don’t want to recite the plot of the world’s longest music video — memories could still be raw — but it’s important to know what you’re getting into when you pony up the 100,000 pounds needed for this Fleetwood ($144,710, according to an estimate by The Telegraph).

Evita (1919-1952) emerged from lower-class obscurity to become a celebrated actress, eventually marrying Argentine president Juan Perón and becoming a huge champion for women’s rights, the poor, and her not-squeaky-clean husband.

Summoning the voting power of the working class and the support of labor unions, Evita helped sweep Juan Perón into power in 1946, but the subsequent charity and outreach to the disadvantaged masked a power-hungry office that restricted liberties if it was convenient. Making your enemies political opponents and critics “go away” is a fine art that Perón excelled at.

Nothing lasts forever, as the saying goes, and Evita died of cervical cancer at the young age of 33 (but not before allegedly receiving a lobotomy requested by her husband). Her death removed the lid that had kept the growing opposition to her husband under control, and Juan Perón fled to Paraguay after being ousted by a civil and military uprising in 1955.

Holding power in South America has its dangers, but while the good times lasted, Ms. Perón and her husband no doubt enjoyed the effortless power of their car’s 331 cubic inch, overhead valve V8.

The lucky buyer of this famous Fleetwood will be able to wave to his or her adoring countrymen with ease, thanks to standard power windows, while the optional Hydramatic automatic transmission will make escaping from armed dissidents a smooth, shift-free affair.

Remember, nowadays Argentine leaders aren’t nearly as refined in public.

[Images: Cadillac, Press Bonhams; Evita, Buena Vista Pictures]