NF500 / 500 Charity

You may remember a while back a Tracey Emin Fiat 500 went under the hammer for charity and sold for £42,000.

Well, despite recent tales of doom and gloom surrounding the economy in the media recently, her latest Fiat 500 to go up for auction, this time a little number titled “Dark, Dark, Dark”, sold for an incredible £200,000.

Absolute Return for Kids charity (ARK) raised £25 million for children at a gala reception in the Royal Naval College, Greenwich last week, with an auction in which this one off Fiat 500 was included.

Thanks (once again) to top news spotter KevinB for finding out the sale details.

Fiat Group Automobiles UK Ltd has shown its support for Save The Children by donating a new Fiat 500 for the aid organisation’s gala charity auction this week.

The car will be one of a staggering list of prizes due to be bid for at Save the Children’s Festival of Trees Gala Dinner in London’s Natural History Museum tomorrow (Tuesday 4 December) in the presence of charity President, HRH The Princess Royal.

The special auction will help raise money for Save the Children’s on-going work around the world. And when the charity heads decided to find a new car to put under the hammer, they knew exactly which one they wanted - the 2008 Car of the Year.

With its stylish good looks, exceptional choice of standard and optional equipment, five-star Euro NCAP crash safety rating and incredible value for money, the new Fiat 500 has been set aside as a star attraction at the auction event. The car will also be on display at the gala dinner.

The idea is that guests bid for one of the bespoke designer ‘Christmas Trees’ which come with special prizes attached,

said Save the Children spokeswoman Susannah Parker.

They might be a luxury safari, tickets to a Premiership football match or a garden re-design, and guests can also bid for a sensational prize - the new Fiat 500.

More than

The first of four new Fiat 500 cars illustrated by renowned English artist Tracey Emin has been sold at auction for £42,000.

The work, entitled ‘I Told You Not To’, is one of four specially designed and painted examples of the supermini, which have taken the art world by storm. Described as taking Emin’s work “quite literally out of the gallery and on to the street”, the cars have created the first moving exhibition of its kind.

The 500 went under the hammer for $85,000 last Saturday (13 October) during the Contemporary Art Auction at the Phillips de Pury & Company saleroom in London.

Proceeds from the sale will go to the artist’s chosen charity PEAS, which is raising funds for a school library in Uganda. Additional funds will also help establish future Fiat art projects in London.

The three other 500s with Emin designs will also be offered at auction, one before the end of the year and two in 2008.

I really enjoyed working on the Fiat 500, which I refer to as the ‘mouse car’,

said Tracey Emin.

The Fiat 500 range goes on sale throughout the UK with a choice of petrol and diesel engines and three trim levels, in January 2008.

To coincide with Frieze art fair, artist Tracey Emin has been commissioned by Fiat to design artwork for four unique Fiat 500s, which will be used to help publicise the 500 prior to launch in the UK.

Tracey Emin has apparently been given an example to drive about the show in, and another example will go under the hammer on October 13th at the Contemporary Art Auction, the proceeds of which will go to charity PEAS to raise funds for a school library in Uganda.

Every year, over 5,500 babies are born prematurely in Italy: babies that need special care in neonatology wards and neonatal intensive care units just to stay alive.

To mark the launch of the new 500, and to give these babies and their parents fresh hope, Fiat has teamed up with the nonprofit Albero della Vita Foundation in the latter’s project entitled “Un nido per Pollicino – Helping the little ones grow big”.

The initiative, whose promoter and scientific coordinator is Dr. Daniele Farina – chief of neonatology at the Sant’Anna hospital in Torino – is raising funds for building and improving neonatology and neonatal intensive care facilities in seven Italian hospitals, as well as for providing psychological support services for parents.

Donations can be made in Italy by sending a text message to the number 48586 from June 30 to July 15, 2007, or by direct deposit to Intesa Sanpaolo bank account 100050 (routing number: CAB 09400, ABI 03069) or postal account 32474264, indicating “Un nido per Pollicino” in the space provided for specifying the reason for the transaction.

Donations can also be made online by accessing the Fiat 500 website, the Fiat website and the Foundation’s website.

The funds raised by the project will be distributed to seven Italian hospitals, each with a strong local tradition in its own area: Torino’s Sant’Anna, Mangiagalli in Milano, Careggi in Florence, Gemelli in Rome, Monaldi in Naples, the Policlinico of Bari, and the Azienda Universitaria Policlinico in Palermo. In addition to these hospitals, the ZeroTre foundling home in Milano will also receive funding.

We decided to support this project because it’s very much in line with the values of the 500, a car that looks to the future, that transmits joy and hope, that can bring a smile to every face. Because that’s how we think of the 500: a little car with a big heart. And we’re very pleased to be able to put this extraordinary power at the service of an initiative as deserving as this.

Explains Luca De Meo, Fiat Automobiles CEO.

We’re proud that an enterprise as important to the entire country as Fiat has chosen us as a partner.

Announced Patrizio Paoletti, chairman of L’Albero della Vita Foundation, an independent humanitarian organization that has been working to protect and safeguard the rights of children and teenagers for over ten years;

The project fits right in with our goals: helping a child today to make an adult happy tomorrow. An important part of our daily work is building consensus and attracting resources that we can redistribute to help satisfy the primary needs of modern society, which are first and foremost the needs of children.

“Un nido per Pollicino” will be assisted by a radio campaign with appeals to the public’s generosity by some of Italy’s most popular entertainers, who have agreed to donate their time – and their voices – to the charitable initiative.