In the heart of the Piazza degli Affari square in Milan, Italy resides an impressively tall statue of a human hand extending its middle finger, quite proudly, in the vicinity of Italy's stock exchange headquarters. The statue, carved by Maurizio Cattelan, is quite ironically titled "L.O.V.E." - an acronym that stands for Libertà, Odio, Vendetta, Eternità, or Liberty, Hate, Vengeance, Eternity.

What an unlikely place to stage a series of press photos. Yet that's just what Maserati did.

Perhaps the Italian luxury car manufacturer thought the move would deter as many publications as possible from actually running the photos. Or perhaps they're gleefully, flagrantly telling everyone they'll just have to wait - that the car isn't ready to show yet, and there's nothing that you or I or anyone can do to get them to change their minds.

We don't see what it matters, anyway; Maserati's new batch of official MC20 photos are wonderfully, flauntingly dissatisfying, the car either being rendered unrecognizable due to motion blur, or hilariously obscured by hilariously poor framing.

Well played.

With this new crop of photos, Maserati is announcing that the first full prototype MC20 has rolled out of Maserati's Modena-based Innovation Lab, and is ready for a proper regimen of road and track testing. Prior to now, Maserati was working with development mules. But before the storied Italian marque gets on with it, they plan to bring their camouflage-clad prototype to a few more "locations symbolic of Italian audacity," so there could be additional flagrant photos on the way from the Trident brand.

Maserati has, of course, released prior "spy shots" of a camo-wearing MC20, but looking at the photos, it seems evident that the car was wearing plenty of shape-obscuring cladding, especially at the front.

Much more than a replacement for the discontinued Maserati GranTurismo, the Italian marque says that the MC20 will mark the beginning of a new era for the Italian marque, and the MC20 name, which stands for "Maserati Corse 2020", reflects that. The last Maserati to wear the "MC" nameplate was the MC12, which was based on the Ferrari Enzo.