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A hand-built Cadillac that once rotated under the lights of the 1955 New York International Auto Show is finally coming up for public sale for the very first time. Known around the world simply as Elegante, this custom Italian-bodied convertible is a rolling piece of postwar design history, and it now heads to the block through Kruse Auctions.
The story behind Elegante begins with commercial artist Harry Birdsall, who dreamed of a European-style luxury cruiser that Detroit simply wasn't building. Teaming up with his friend Joe Mascari, Birdsall started with a 1953 Cadillac Series 62 chassis, complete with its 331-cubic-inch V-8 and four-speed Hydra-Matic gearbox, then handed his rough sketches to designer Albrecht von Goertz. It's believed to be Goertz's first automotive commission after opening his own studio, and just two years later he'd go on to pen the BMW 503 and the now-iconic BMW 507.
With the design finalized, the build itself went to Carrozzeria Rocco Motto in Turin, Italy, where craftsmen spent roughly 30 months hand-forming the aluminum body and lowering the chassis by eight inches for a lower, sleeker stance. The finished car packed a hydraulically retractable hardtop, a Lucite steering wheel, gold-plated bronze trim, and a wraparound windshield, details that made it every bit as extravagant as its reported $30,000 price tag suggested. When Elegante finally returned stateside and debuted on a rotating stand at the 1955 New York International Auto Show, it earned a writeup in The New York Times under the memorable headline about a gold-plated Cadillac stealing the show.
Ownership passed through a handful of hands over the following decades, including a stint with Florida road-construction executive Stan Marks, who reportedly refused every offer from the Birdsall family to buy the car back. It wasn't until 1992 that Harry's son, Richard "Dicky" Birdsall, finally reacquired the family car and began a painstaking 16-year restoration to return it to its original glory, both cosmetically and mechanically. That labor of love paid off when Elegante reappeared at the 2014 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance and took home the People's Choice award, cementing its status among collectors as one of the more significant coachbuilt American concepts of its era.
Now, for the first time since it was conceived over 70 years ago, Elegante is being offered to the public. The Cadillac crosses the block as Lot 620 at Kruse Auctions' Auburn Fall sale on September 5, 2026, and the deal includes a custom-built, climate-controlled Pegasus Race trailer along with a trove of period photographs, magazine clippings, and a limited-edition scale model. For collectors chasing something genuinely one-of-a-kind, a piece of American dream-car history that's never changed hands at auction, this may be the only chance they ever get. See it v.
