Collectors & Aficionados
Albert Spiess: His Cars Will Never Be the Same
A tribute to Albert Spiess, the discreet Swiss collector whose Lamborghini collection was the one the marque itself could never assemble.
The painful news of Albert Spiess’s passing allows us, at last, to know him. Until yesterday, no one had asked what the true relationship was between the great Swiss collector and his magnificent automobiles. No one had asked, because Albert – discreet and quiet – had no desire to appear, nor to display his jewels, which are kept in a building as anonymous as it is well protected, near Zurich. When extraordinary cars such as the Lamborghini Marzal – rescued by him from terrible condition and restored with a perfection that would have astonished Ferruccio Lamborghini himself – or the Alfa Romeo 33/2 Stradale were presented at concours, he would stand one step back, entrusting his beloved Rita with the responsibility of bringing them into the spotlight.
It is this gracious and elegant way of living that we can now try to explore, with a single purpose: to pay him tribute and to thank him for what he did for the automobile. We do so because we were fortunate enough to know him closely and to have – something that has never moved us more than today – his esteem.
