Someone Bought the BMW 'Spaghetti Car' for $117,000

Money might not be able to buy happiness, but it can certainly buy some of the more ridiculous things in the world. Take the BMW i3 draped in a vinyl wrap of spaghetti (please), which BMW states sold for well over six figures during a charity auction.

If you happened to see this BMW driving around, you might mistake it for a rolling advertisement for an obscene form of Ragu. After all, aside from a printed vinyl wrap that features a blown-up image of spaghetti and the word "TOILETPAPER" on the doors, this is just like any old i3 you could buy at a dealer (and lease for less than $300 a month), from the battery and suspension to the mildly futuristic interior.

The $75,000 inflation in price did benefit a good cause, however. The car was auctioned off for charity as part of an event hosted by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which benefits wildlife conservation. After what some described as "intense bidding," the i3 netted a whopping €100,000 ($117,000) for the charitable organization.

It's important to point out that this is not an official BMW Art Car. Though historically BMW has had some absurd designs, I'm not certain the auto manufacturer would pass a plate of food as the latest member of one of their company's most iconic memorabilia. Oddly enough, BMW's electric lineup received a similar treatment before where "art car"-themed cars were designed, but not officially designated as such.

The 'spaghetti car', as BMW called it, was revealed at the French Rencontres d’Arles Festival of Photography in 2016 as a collaboration between Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari under their art brand, Toiletpaper. BMW was to have the design destroyed per the wishes of the artist, Cattelan, however it appears that the car lived on long enough to become the property of a collector.