BUGATTI POWER IS NOTHING WITHOUT BEAUTY

by Giovanni Gasparini

What makes a classic? The inherent quality of telling something new and relevant across time.

Add technology and the quest for speed, and you get a true classic car; nobody has interpreted this formula better than Ettore Bugatti, the Italian car genius of a family trio of creative masters, with the designer Carlo and the sculptor Rembrandt. Thus it should not come as a surprise that Bugattis regularly feature as top lots at auctions worldwide, where they trade well above the million mark. Like the mythical Phoenix, Bugatti has rebirth from its ashes twice, every time with a distinctive and incomparable combination of technical achievements and beautiful design:

- the beginnings under the founder Ettore Bugatti, and later his sons Jean and Roland, from 1909 to 1956;

- the Modena period under the direction of Romano Artioli, from 1987 to 1995;

- the last 25 years under the VW group, with the production of the Veyron model in 2005. There is no better way to narrate this fascinating and inspiring history of determination, technology, speed and aesthetic then presenting the iconic products: four cars of different periods and scopes, somehow representative of the 114 years since the foundation of the historical factory in Molsheim.

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL RACING MODEL EVER: TYPE 35

Introduced in 1924, the Bugatti Type 35 has won over 2.000 races in the following decade including 5 times the Targa Florio, the most challenging race of those times, and 4 times the Monaco GP.

A well-known exemplar of this car, a 1929 Bugatti Type 35C, raced to the 4th place in the 1929 Monaco GP and previously owned by the Baron George Philippe de Rothschild, preserved for 25 years in the Bart Rosman Collection, has been sold at auction by Artcurial in Paris in February 2023 for 2.2 million Euro.

> artcurial.com