The Art of Conservation

Details how a rare and influential car was miraculously discovered and recovered.

Alfa Romeo SVZ Coda Tronca presents an unforgettable story of an abandoned yet influential vehicle’s rediscovery and restoration. Hidden away in a barn for the better part of five decades, a single Alfa Romeo SVZ Coda Tronca—a rare and highly significant car in the company’s design development—was found in a nearly perfect state of preservation.

Drawing on art and archaeological techniques and taking painstaking care to save as much as possible of the original body, prominent Italian collector Corrado Lopresto decided to clean only half the car, leaving the other half frozen in time. In the uncleaned half, Lopresto preserved everything (including the dust) under a thin layer of transparent lacquer.

The cleaned part has not been fully restored either but has been saved by retouching in such a way that the original aspects are not affected. This book captures the rediscovery of this historic vehicle and the way it has been preserved—a fascinating tale of art meeting automobile.