Can a car really be a work of art? Let's examine some evidence. In a landmark 2019 legal hearing brought by Ferrari against the Ares coachbuilder, an Italian court decreed that the 250 GTO was exactly that and therefore could not be imitated or reproduced. At $50m-plus, its monetary value is on a par with some of humankind's greatest artistic achievements, if monetary value is your preferred metric.
So that's the car as art. But what of the art car? The vehicle you see here is the 8 X Jeff Koons BMW, a car that tests the thesis by being available in a run of 99, and bears the unmistakable and mischievous imprimatur of one of the world's top artists. And showmen.
BMW has form here, having created 19 art cars since American artist Alexander Calder treated a 3.0 CSL as a mobile canvas in 1975. BMW raced it at Le Mans that year. "The public loved the idea. It was easy to understand, and it looked rather like a kid's drawing, with very bright colours. It was like a moving sculpture,” Hervé Poulain, the French racing driver, and auctioneer whose idea it was, told me a few years ago.
Since then, the programme has grown in stature and attracted the superstar likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, and Andy Warhol. “I adore the car,” Poulain observed. “It's much better than a work of art.” Rather than using a scale model before transposing the work, Warhol set about a BMW M1 with thick decorating brushes and pots of paint. It was done in 20 minutes. That car also raced at Le Mans, in 1979, finishing an impressive sixth. Extraordinary at the time, all the more so now given that this is widely regarded by experts as the most valuable car in the world. “Effectively priceless," one told me. Well north of $100m, if you insist on a figure.
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