How to Own a Rare Piece of Automotive History

Italian design house Bertone helped define the look of supercars before going bankrupt in 2014. Now its vast archives of models, sketches, working concepts and production cars are up for auction.

The Italian car styling firm Bertone produced some of the most important supercars of the 20th century, but an auction this month will be the closing chapter for this storied autos styling house. Photo: Lamborghini
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EARLIER THIS year, auction house Aste Bolaffi sent its car historian Massimo Delbo to the outskirts of Turin to catalog the contents of a factory once owned by Bertone, a century-old Italian car styling company that went bankrupt in 2014. Mr. Delbo expected to spend a single day picking through the factory’s remains, but once he cracked open the doors, he realized the project could take him months.

Drawer after drawer, room after room revealed thousands of beautifully hand-drawn sketches, design models, technical prints,...