Snag These Bertone Blueprints And Start Your Automotive Art Collection
“Collecting” can mean a lot of things when it comes to car-related artwork. It could be a 12-year-old boy with two Ferrari posters on his wall or a multi-millionaire with a warehouse full of Grand Prix posters and hood ornaments—passion is passion. Auto art can be had at any price point. It also doesn’t take up much room, nor does it require any real upkeep the way a real car does. If you have limited space, you can even switch up what you’re displaying at any given time. That’s probably what we’d do with this group of period Bertone blueprint drawings, currently up for auction online in Italy.
According to the listing the 1/10-scale drawings, printed on semi-transparent acetate tracing paper, came from a long-term Bertone employee who kept them in his own collection before giving them to the seller’s grandfather about 40 years ago. They are each supposedly one of only three prints made from a paper master, and they range in size with the largest ones roughly four feet wide.
The group totals 14 drawings and features various (mostly Italian) cars and designers. Two of the largest illustrations show the Lamborghini Miura and Lancia Stratos (both by Marcello Gandini at Bertone). Other Bertone-designed pieces include a Citroën GS, Fiat Dino Coupe, and ISO Rivolta GT. A Lancia Delta (by Italdesign) and an Alfa Romeo Junior Z (by Ercole Spada) are included as well. Finally, there are two renderings of the short-lived postwar Bugatti 101, both signed by Giovanni Michelotti at Ghia.
Different cars, different designers, different sizes. Sounds like a great way to kickstart an automotive art collection. Bidding for the 14 drawings ends on Tuesday, May 7. What they’ll sell for isn’t easy to guess, but that’s the beauty of auctions like this. We’ll find out what it’s worth once people stop bidding.
I love old initial renderings and blueprints. There’s something about them that exhibits both the need to consider the practical realities while leaving room for artistic licence. In some of the looser sketches you can see how a designer started here and ended up there. Not to mention the ‘in the moment’ immediacy of pencil on paper. Like a simple charcoal drawing that only has those few required lines but leaves you feeling you are..were..somehow there at that time. CAD has its merits but something very easily tangible has been left behind …and not for the better. A Brunelleschi blueprint is to imagine looking over the shoulder of genius.
Yeah, these are neat. No idea what they are “worth”, either, but as in the old saying, anything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it…
I had an extra set of the blueprints from when I built my house. When I created a small office in my garage/shop, I papered one wall with the drawings. Of all of my shop decor (almost all car/motorcycle/truck-related), that wall gets the most comments from visitors.
When my parents built their second house in the early 80s, they framed a floorplan and the elevation from the original blueprints and hung them in the dining room. They left them for the new owners when they sold in the mid 90s.
Very cool to see, not sure what I would do with it but they look great.