By now, you have probably heard that the city of Detroit declared bankruptcy last week. With over 18 billion dollars in debt, Detroit has been forced to cut basic city services and spending on everything from education to police services. With bankruptcy proceedings, the city can pay down its debt for pennies on the dollar, though it won’t come cheap as many city icons may be put up for auction.

This could include parts of Detroit’s famous international art collection, valued at some $2.5 billion, as well as many historic cars from the Detroit Historical Museum. The rumor was originally reported by the New York Times, and now The Truth About Cars explores in-depth how some truly unique pieces of Detroit’s automotive history could go to the highest bidder, including the first Mustang concept to look la Mustang.

The Detroit Historical Museum is home to a number of unique pieces important to the history of the American automobile.  But perhaps more interesting and possibly valuable than any of those is the 1963 Mustang II concept, which Ford gifted to the Detroit Historical Museum in 1975. This is the second concept car to bear the Mustang name, powered by a 289 from the Shelby Cobra, it closely the production Mustang that went on sale in 1964.

The original Mustang II concept remains popular with enthusiasts today, even showing up as toy cars and scale models that are often popular items. Should the actual car go up for auction during the Mustang’s 50th anniversary celebration, it could create a veritable bidding frenzy among the Ford faithful. And chances are if it is sold to a private collector, it will disappear from public viewing for a very long time. Reports in the last few days have surfaced denying that any artwork or cars in the collection will be sold, only time and a judge will tell if that’s true though, and one has to wonder what would that 1963 concept car go for?