Can a car ever be art? It’s a debate almost as old as the automotive industry itself, but now we have a definitive, and legally binding, answer. Yes. So, if you’re a company in Modena planning to build 250 GTO replicas, stop what you’re doing; a court in Italy has declared the iconic model to be a work of art, with protections preventing its imitation or reproduction by anyone outside of Ferrari itself now enshrined in Italian law.
According to The Telegraph, Ferrari brought about the legal action leading to the judgement after it caught wind of a Modena-based firm’s plans to create its own modern interpretation of the Maranello classic. Now, though, its representatives have effectively used the law to block the unnamed firm (we’ll leave it to you to guess which company is the culprit) from proceeding. The court unanimously decided that the car’s “artistic merits” had already been recognised by “numerous awards and official testaments”, making the decision an easy one.
Indeed, the 250 GTO is renowned as much for its gorgeous Berlinetta form as it is for its sporting achievements during the 1960s. An auction world record really hammered home the point – with only 36 having been made, aficionados are prepared to pay as much as £38 million for one. Given that, of all the cars out there, this was always going to be the first to achieve an art status, wasn’t it?
What this means for people looking to fit 250 GTO kits to their cars is yet to be revealed, although we suspect Maranello is less concerned about MX-5-based bolt-ons and more interested in businesses – especially those down the road in Modena – that are seeking to make a profit off full 250 GTO copies. The days of that, it seems, have come to an abrupt end.
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