In New York city, in an underground garage a rare collection of 36 classic Corvettes were discovered.

The cars were won in a contest organized by music channel VH1 then later sold to German graphic artist Peter Max who wanted to incorporate the Vettes in his vibrant pop art works. Max never got around to it clearly and the Vettes  sat in the garage and collected dust for more than 25 years.

The collection has every Corvette model released between 1953 and 1989. Max reportedly bought the whole collection from Dennis Amodeo, a carpenter from Long Island, who won the cars during the VH1 Corvette giveaway in 1989. The exchange of the exotic collection eventually resulted in Amodeo pocketing $250,000 in cash.

The man also walked away with $250,000 worth of Max’s artwork and an agreement stating that if Max decided to sell the collection in the future, Amodeo would receive up to $1 million.Max sold the vintage collection ultimately to Adam Heller and others from his family.

One of the most precious cars in the collection is a 1953 Corvette – one of only 300 ever built.

According to the experts some of the cars were expected to take only two weeks to restore, while others could take more than a year.