Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia (Turin 1879 – Ripafratta 1959) was one of the first to realise, in the first decades of the 20th century, that in spite of its youth, the motorcar contained the seeds of a story worth telling, and that it could and should be considered a work of art, to be saved from neglect and decay, and shown to future generations, celebrating its innocence and lack of sophistication. From scrap metal, that was only worth the price of the steel it contained, in Biscaretti’s hands and drawings the old cars from the turn of the century became evidence of hard work, inventiveness, genius, mechanical knowledge and art. He must take credit for having brought together the Museum’s initial collection of cars and documents. But above all for having transmitted to us his love of a past that was only just over a hundred years ago, but which is moving away from us at a dizzying speed.
Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia was born in Turin in 1879. He saw his first Italian car race, the Turin-Asti-Turin, when he was 16. He was not yet twenty when a dozen Turin businessmen, bankers, landowners and aristocrats, including his father conte Roberto, founded the Fiat motor company. In 1901, while he was studying Law at university, he managed to convince his father to compete with him at the first Giro d’Italia, with mechanic Felice Nazzaro and journalist Edgardo Longoni from La Stampa.
Biscaretti with Nazzaro and Longoni at the 1901 Giro d’Italia
In 1898, when he was still under 21, he joined his father in founding the Turin Automobile Club (at a meeting held in their home), and he was one of the first Italians to obtain a driving licence, in 1902. His father wanted him to become a solicitor, but understood his passion, because he shared it.
But Carlo Biscaretti had an extra something. He was an enthusiast, like so many others, but he also had an artist’s eye, a prodigious gift for mechanical drawing, and an inborn talent for drawing, with pastels or watercolours. He exploited these gifts from the start, becoming an expert in “exploded” drawings, and he began to work for the leading motor companies of the day.
An exploded drawing for the Itala 61
He produced the illustrations for numerous user manuals, where every small part of an engine or chassis was illustrated in tiny detail (drawn freehand, without a computer). However, he felt that he had to show his father that there was nothing ‘bohemian’ about his desire to be an artist, and in 1905, against his true vocation, he moved to Genoa where, for the whole of the next year, he managed the branch office of Fabbre e Gagliardi (selling accessories for cycles and motor-cars), before moving to Rome, to manage the local branch of Carrozzeria Alessio. After this period of “management” apprenticeship, he felt free to return to Turin where he opened an office as a technical draughtsman and advertising designer.
In 1916 he joined Itala, as head of the Press and Advertising Department; until 1930 (when the company closed) he produced all the famous Turin-based company’s advertisements, billboards and posters, as well as its technical publications. He created some of its best advertisements, for the Itala 51 and Itala 61 models, like an Italian René Vincent, but without the malice that is evident in many of the French artist’s drawings.
His talent could not save Itala from closure, and Biscaretti also worked for Fiat for six months (from January 1 to June 30, 1930), then he set up on his own again, this time drawing on his past experience and working as a journalist, historian, water-colour painter and humourist, as well as a technical draughtsman and advertising designer.
In 1933 the management of the Motor Show, which was held in Milan at the time, commissioned him to organise a retrospective exhibition of vintage cars. “Vintage” may seem an inappropriate term for something that was only thirty years old, but the motor-car had evolved so rapidly that the cars produced at the turn of the century were obsolete even in the eyes of the public of the 1930s. This commission was no coincidence. A year earlier, at the “Congresso dei Veterani” that was held in Turin to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first driving licences, someone put forward the idea of founding an Automobile Museum. The proposal took shape rapidly and a few months later, during the first visit to Turin by the head of the Italian government, for the inauguration of the Turin-Milan motorway, Cesare Goria Gatti, editor of the magazine “L’Automobile”, the first and only one of its kind in Italy, raised the matter of creating a Museum with him. The following year Giuseppe Acutis, Chairman of both ANFIA, Associazione Nazionale Fascista Industrie dell’Automobile (the Italian motor manufacturers association), and the Motor Show, submitted a comprehensive plan to the Podestà, the local administrator, simultaneously commissioning Biscaretti to organise a retrospective exhibition at the Motor Show.
The success of this exhibition was such that the proposal was accepted and, on July 19, 1933, a decree by the Podestà established the “Automobile Museum” as an entity, which the head of the Government recognised as a “National” organisation the following month. By the same decree, the city authorities decided to earmark 10,000 lire (to which ANFIA and the R.A.C.I., the Royal Italian Automobile Club, both added 5,000 lire) and to house the new Museum in the premises of the municipal stadium named after Benito Mussolini. The city authorities also appointed an executive committee (initially chaired by the Podestà himself and subsequently by Acutis) and entrusted the position of provisional organiser to the person who had so successfully organised the retrospective exhibition, Carlo Biscaretti.
Biscaretti may have thought initially that he would be able to put the Museum together with the same speed and immediacy as he had organised the retrospective exhibition in Milan. He never imagined that this job, which he accepted with his customary enthusiasm and the confidence of someone who is certain of succeeding, would become a burden, to the point that he drew a caricature of himself as an old man, being strangled by the word MUSEUM.
The life of the Museum was difficult and hard work at the start. Biscaretti was allowed to use the former plant of the Aquila Italiana company in Corso Belgio temporarily, until the premises at the stadium became available. While he was in Rome promoting the cause of the new Museum, he received a telegram in which his trusted assistant, Pietro Vercellone, summoned him back to Turin because workmen had begun to demolish the plant. Biscaretti reacted fast. He hurried to the Podestà and threatened to tow all his cars along Via Roma and to abandon them in Piazza Castello, to make the local population aware of the council’s negligence. In fact the city council did believe in the Automobile Museum, and over the next six years, from 1933 to 1939 (the year the museum opened to the public) it invested a total of 175,000 lire. It had also identified some land for construction, between Corso Dante, Corso Massimo d’Azeglio and Via Pietro Giuria, probably assuming even then that the stadium premises would not be suitable. At the time the land belonged to Fiat and the Podestà, Paolo Thaon di Revel, approached Giovanni Agnelli asking him to sell it. Agnelli did not refuse to sell, but nor was he in favour. His consent, which was given unwillingly, hampered the authorities’ initiative, and the whole matter was forgotten. A few years later the Società Ippica Torinese built a riding school on the land.
So the problem of the premises still had to be solved. But now the premises at the stadium were ready and the move, into the enormous structure, built for the Exposition of 1911 in the old Piazza d’Armi, was concluded in 1938. In 1939 the Museum was officially inaugurated by Mussolini, during his second visit to Turin; it opened its doors to the public that July. There were 181 exhibits in the collection, dating from 1854 to 1939, including 55 complete cars, 62 engines (even aero engines) and 30 chassis, but only 73 were on display, due to a lack of space.
At the Stadium with his right-hand man, Pietro Vercellone
Biscaretti was not satisfied. It was freezing cold in Winter and unbearably hot in Summer. It was a long way from the centre and no one went there, except for a few Juventus or Torino fans during the half-time interval. Even the funding, almost exclusively from the city authorities, was insufficient for any collateral cultural activities or widespread promotion. As a result, the Museum was not part of city life, relatively unknown and rarely visited, to the great bitterness of its organiser, who had made it the purpose of his life. The second world war came and went, causing little damage to the cars but unfortunately a great deal to the collection of documents and relics.
A Municipal decree dated October 15, 1945 confirmed Biscaretti in his role as organiser. But a new political will was starting to emerge. There was even talk of restructuring the entity so that it was no longer provisional. Anfia (now known as Associazione Nazionale fra le Industrie dell’Automobile) allocated funds which made it possible to expand the collections, and the organisation was also modified. The turnaround came in 1955: Anfia decided to tackle the problem of the new premises head-on and to make the Museum a legal entity, thus giving it full autonomy. The municipal authorities intervened again, granting the use of some land in July 1956. Funding to construct the new premises was guaranteed by car-makers, the Agnelli family, tyre manufacturers, oil companies, local banks and national organisations and associations. The building was designed by architect Amedeo Albertini. It belonged to the City of Turin, which granted it in use to the Museum organisation, which had been re-established by a decree of the Italian President in 1957.
Work in progress for the Museum in 1958
The day of the inauguration approached, amid joy and bitterness. The collection, made up of 106 cars (86 of which were donated) of 50 different makes, 26 chassis (17 donated), 20 engines, a collection of motorcycles and 15 velocipedes, and 200 scale models, dating back to the years 1898 to 1954, and respecting the chronological order of the original exhibition. The provisional catalogue, which was updated to July 15, 1958, stated: “The Museum will include sections regarding cars of all ages, racing cars and military vehicles, as well as a library, conference rooms, cinemas and more besides. In the intentions of its promoters the museum will be not only a well organised display of models but also a place where motoring experts and enthusiasts can meet, an entity to promote all aspects of motoring, and a documentation centre set up in order to celebrate the men and events of the past”. The Library contains magazines, photographs, technical drawings, illustrations and pictures, as well as approximately 2000 books.
The 1958 Motor Show was held, and the 1959 edition, and still the building was not finished; its scale and complexity made it very slow work. It covered an area of 5,600 m2, with a total extension of 13,300 m2 over three floors. The exhibition area was approximately 10,000 m2, whereas green areas and car parks accounted for another 8,400 m2.
If the work did not go fast, time did. It was the Summer of 1959, and Biscaretti in his lovely refuge in Ripafratta, Tuscany, began to draw the many tables needed for the various rooms of the Museum.
A table for the Museum
Twenty-six years had passed since he had been made “provisional organiser”. Another fifteen months and the beautiful, modern museum, the pride of the city, would be inaugurated. But a few days later, when he was completing a table for the first Fiat car of 1899, Biscaretti died.
For this reason, at a meeting of the Board of Directors in October 1959, Giovanni Agnelli, who was then Vice Chairman, proposed naming the Museum after him. And the name remained until 2011 when, to mark the inauguration of the reborn Museum, it was renamed after Giovanni Agnelli himself.
