Bertone’s cars have returned to Turin. Consisting of about eighty vehicles, including extremely rare concept cars and prototypes, the ASI Bertone Collection has left the Volandia Museum in Malpensa to move permanently to the Heritage Hub, which, thanks to an agreement between the Automotoclub Storico Italiano and Stellantis Heritage, has opened its doors to host this extraordinary testament to the design work of that creative powerhouse of an atelier that saw the rise of great masters of car design, from Giorgetto Giugiaro to the late Marcello Gandini. And it was precisely these eyewitnesses—including Giugiaro himself, along with colleagues Mike Robinson, Luciano D’Ambrosio, Giuliano Biasio, and David Wilkie—who created one of the most engaging moments during the presentation ceremony on March 31, with a talk that quickly turned into a flood of memories and tributes to Bertone’s genius and his ability to nurture and bring out talent.
Speaking of memories, one that was particularly meaningful to us at Auto&Design was the one shared during the speech by Marie Jeanne Bertone, president of the foundation now dedicated to her father, Nuccio Bertone. She recalled how Fulvio Cinti, the magazine’s founder, described Bertone as “the undisputed driving force behind the rise of Italian car design.”
“The addition of the ASI Bertone Collection further strengthens the Heritage HUB’s role as a unique hub within the museum landscape, capable of recounting the key milestones in technological and design evolution across various fields: from racing to ecology, from custom-built cars to compact cars that have shaped the history of mobility worldwide,” said Roberto Giolito, Head of Stellantis Heritage Italia. “Our mission is to recount, through an evolutionary perspective, over a century of automotive history intimately connected to the city of Turin.”
There are 66 cars on display in the collection, all designed by Bertone between the 1960s and 2000. The public can now admire them in the large space at Via Plava 80, which already houses the fabulous collection of Fiat, Lancia, and Alfa Romeo cars and prototypes, housed in the museum open to the public from Tuesday to Thursday from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, with tickets available for purchase online. But the public opening is not the only “opening” worth highlighting: with the Bertone Collection, the Heritage Hub is also breaking a historical taboo, welcoming for the first time into its halls cars based on models from foreign brands (as many as twenty), many of which are outside the Stellantis Group.
