Ferrari 250 GTO Legally Ruled A Work Of Art

Jul. 03, 2019 8:45 AM ET by Noah Joseph Classic Cars / Comments

This according to the Italian courts.

Ferrari has produced some beautiful vehicles over the course of its history. As have many of its rivals, past and present. But few can hold a candle to the legendary 250 GTO – a venerable work of art on wheels, not infrequently displayed as such at modern- and fine-art museums around the world. But it's not just the manufacturer or museum curators that hold the most iconic of Prancing Horses to be a work of art. So too do the courts in the land of its birth, cementing once and for all its singularity in Italian law.

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Automobile magazine reports on a recent court case that saw Ferrari going after outside workshops producing replica GTOs – something to which the factory objected, and for which it took legal recourse. Maranello's lawyers argued that the 250 GTO is a work of art, and cannot be replicated without the factory's consent. And the court agreed.

That means that the independent panel-beaters producing such replicas in Italy will have to cease and desist from what's become a not-uncommon practice. In fact some of the 36 owners of actual, authentic GTOs have been known to commission faithful copies they can actually race, without risking writing off their eight-figure investment.

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These replicas are often based on (relatively) more "common" iterations of the 250 series, of which there were many. Others are recreated using only a handful of original components. But the factory, it seems, hasn't approved of the practice.

Now that it's been officially outlawed (in Italy), those interested in acquiring a replica GTO (whether they already own the real deal or not) will have to look outside of the country to have theirs made. Or maybe, just maybe, Ferrari will offer the service itself to those with the credentials and the means.

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Ferrari 250 GTO Legally Ruled A Work Of Art

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Ferrari 250 GTO Legally Ruled A Work Of Art

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