Rarities from the Bertone collection are sold off
The auction on BeniMobilii.it has 45 days to go and it should really be causing quite a stir. The fact is that only a few people actually know about it.
On offer are 79 cars designed and/or built by the Bertone company. These are vehicles from the Bertone collection, which are now to be auctioned off as part of the liquidation, but not individually, but "en bloc". So you can only bid for all of them together; the current bid is €1.572 million. There are taxes and fees to be added, but the amount is still ridiculously low, at least at the moment, as the vehicles include a Lamborghini Miura S (1967), an Alfa Romeo Montreal (1972), a Lamborghini Espada (1970), a Fiat Dino Coupé (1970), a Lancia Stratos (1975), a Ferrari 308 GT/4 (1978), a Lamborghini Countach (1987), among many other (mostly newer) vehicles built by Bertone.
However, those who would like to take part in the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este would enjoy the concept cars and salon exhibition cars even more, as these are all one-offs, such as the Autobianchi Runabout (1969), the Bertone Shake (1970), the legendary Citroën Camarque (1972), the four-seater mid-engined NSU Trapeze (1973), the Ferrari Rainbow (1976), the Volvo Tundra (1979), or the Chevrolet Ramarro (1984).
A bargain then? Perhaps, but there are probably strict conditions from the Ministry of Culture, which state that the collection must remain together, i.e. it cannot be sold (and resold) piece by piece, and that it must remain in Italy and may not be exported. It therefore looks very much as if a buyer will be able to use the rare pieces, some of which would probably have to be extensively restored, but not actually own them. The vehicles would therefore probably be best placed in an Italian museum.
Perhaps that's why the whole auction is being held almost in secret, but for a moment you can't help dreaming when you look at the vehicles ...
