The Car Collection of Nicola Bulgaria

The name Bulgari is most readily associated with fine jewellery, watches, fragrances, accessories, high-end hotels and resorts, generally written in the stylised form BVLGARI. But Nicola Bulgari, the company’s Vice Chairman and grandson of Sotirios Voulgaris, who founded the luxury brand in 1884, has another passion. Cars – not just any cars, or even the ‘usual’ elite machines favoured by the rich and famous – but those made during what he holds to be the golden age of American automobiles.

These mostly date from the late 1920s to the 1940s, although his collection does have several examples from later years and a few from other countries. Nicola Bulgari loves America, its movies, its jazz but uppermost its cars. He, along with some friends and his chief mechanic Keith Flickinger (to whom he refers as his collaborator), has built up an astonishing collection of cars that reflect the technological and aesthetic
advancements made since around 1929. All the cars have been immaculately restored and – most importantly – each one is immediately available to be turnkey driven and enjoyed. To quote the man
himself: “Cars are sculptures that should be seen, be touched and be driven.”
The collection forms the nucleus of the NB Center for American Automotive Heritage and currently numbers around 280. They are dispersed between three locations, one in the USA and two in Italy. Some 200 of them are housed at Allentown, Pennsylvania, in a specially constructed ‘hangar’, alongside a repurposed former
drive-in movie theatre, which now incorporates an exercise track for the cars. Those awaiting or undergoing restoration are contained in another building nearby.
A smaller premises in Rome caters for a further 50 that includes a ‘subcollection’ of limousines formerly owned by the Vatican while, at Sarteano in Tuscany, dozens of Bulgari’s favourites are contained within two ex-industrial units. One of these has been transformed by local architect Andrea Gobbi into a striking
modern ‘temple’ to the automobile. In addition to the cars, it includes a display case running the entire width of the building featuring model cars. Among these are examples of virtually every 1:43 scale model made by the English company ‘Brooklin’ (another of Bulgari’s interests), while overhead is a very smart glass-fronted apartment on a mezzanine floor which overlooks the cars. There are undoubtedly those who would prefer the view from its windows to be of the Bay of Naples or Big Sur, but to see such perfect examples of iconic cars spread before you, is a petrolhead’s idyll. All the cars are cared for by a curator and teams of highly skilled mechanics under the auspices of the Fondazione Nicola Bulgari, located in Rome.

During a vacation last year in Tuscany, my wife and I were granted access to view the exhibits at Sarteano. Kindly arranged by Gianluca Ciminiello from the Fondazione, we were also offered the opportunity to visit the Rome facility, but time constraints prevented this. However, we were able to gain an appreciation of the cars based elsewhere from the several high-quality Foundation publications on view at Sarteano.

By Roy Dowding
President of the Gordon-Keeble Owners’ Club and Chair of East Anglian Practical Classics

Originally published in Issue 5 (March, 2025) issue of Historic, the magazine of the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs. Reprinted with permission.