Fancy owning the Bertone brand - and Bertone's huge collection of historic concept cars, prototypes and production exotica?

79 cars and the museum? Bargain!

The Bertone trademark and a stellar collection of 79 cars from the Bertone Museum could be yours - and at a startlingly knockdown price.

Bertone - the carrozzeria behind the likes of the Lamborghini Miura and Countach, the Alfa GTV, and Fiats like the Dino and X1/9 - was declared bankrupt last year. The full story of the demise of this great design house is a desperately sad, internecine disaster, so convoluted that it really can't be told here.

Now the courts in Milan have ordered the assets of the bankrupt 'Bertone Cento' company be sold at an online auction next week. Among these is the Bertone brand itself, which the auctioneer values at £2.2 million.

But it's the cars from Bertone's museum collection that has really got us drooling. Sadly six of the most desirable Bertone prototypes - such as the Lancia Stratos HF Zero and Lamborghini Marzal - were sold off in 2011. Considering the huge prices these cars made at the Villa d'Este auction, the starting prices for the remaining crop of Bertones seem peanut-pickingly low.

Nivola (left) is Corvette based

Bargain-basement Bertones

Just how low? Well, here are a few examples of the extraordinary prices that someone could snap these cars up for.

Bertone's stunning 1976 Ferrari 308 Rainbow, an exercise in pure '70s wedge, has a starting price of just £35,000, which is less than a decent regular 308.

Another '70s one-off wedge, the Jaguar-based Ascot coupe of 1977, is valued at just over £20,000. Or how about the Blitz, an iconic 1992 offset-two-seater, of which there are two examples up for grabs (priced at just £6,600 and £2,900)?

A cheap part of a very expensive lot!

The Nivola, a very striking 1990 one-off based on the Corvette, is valued at a mere £58,000, as is another Corvette-based coupe, the 1984 Ramarro. The equally fetching Lotus Emotion coupe of 1991 - presumably a non-functioning mock-up - is valued at just £1,500.

One of the oddest lots is the 1988 Genesis, a gigantic MPV based on a Lamborghini V12, potentially yours for just £3,000.

And among the collection of might-have-made-production prototypes are some absolutely wonderful cars. How about the one and only Alfa Romeo GT Cabriolet (yours for £6,600)? Or the bizarre Fiat X1/10 prototype of 1980, an utterly mad mid-engined mix of X1/9 and Strada?

Knock-down Miuras and more

Perhaps the single most remarkable price in the auction is a Lamborghini Miura S, which the auctioneer values at £102,000. With its true value on the open market more like ten times that, you'd be justified in thinking you've landed in a fantasy land whose sole purpose is to put your blessed behind in the seat of supercar heaven.

Other production lots include a 1987 Countach (at £40,000, a tiny fraction of what it's really worth), Ferrari 308 GT4 (ditto at £11,000), a Lamborghini Espada at a comical £7,300 and a yellow Lancia Stratos for £73,000. We'll walk on by the slough of Opel Astras and Skoda Favorits, though...

X/19 with Strada? Go on then!

So, what's the catch?

Of course, there is a hitch. A pretty big one, too. The lots are not available individually - only as a whole collection. Why? Because they've been given 'special cultural status' by the Italian Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities. That means you'll need to bid for all 79 cars at once - and therefore at least £1.6 million in your pocket to meet the reserve.

That special legal status also means the collection can never be removed from Italian soil. So, no trips up the Goodwood hillclimb any time soon.

And there's more. The law also stipulates that no car can subsequently be sold individually, which I guess provides a strong defence against predatory speculators.

Ramarro another Corvette based Bertone

Tragicomic ending

It's all a bit sad, really, that such an illustrious name has ended up mired in a government fire sale.

I understand why the Italian authorities want to keep the Bertone design collection in Italy, and why it needs to sell the whole collection as one. But I can't help feeling that Bertone's creditors might have got a better deal if the production cars (which after all aren't historic in the same way as the one-offs) had been hived off into a separate auction so that they could realise their true market value. As well as being freed up to be used on the road, of course.

Let's hope that whoever gets their hands on this remarkable collection treats it with the respect it deserves, and ideally sees fit to open it up as a museum for the rest of us to see.