Jeff Koons Presented US Debut of his BMW Art Car at Art Basel in Miami Beach.

Miami, FL – December 4, 2013 . . . Artist Jeff Koons and supermodel Karolína Kurková presented the North American premiere of Koons’ BMW Art Car, the M3 GT2 race car on December 4th, the night of the opening day of Art Basel in Miami Beach.  The unveiling happened during a BMW reception in the Miami Beach Botanical Garden where Koons and Marc Spiegler, Director of Art Basel spoke.

At the event, Koons remarked: “I always enjoyed the Art Cars - Warhol’s Car, Roy Lichtenstein’s car, Stella’s, Calder’s – all the cars have always been fantastic. I just wanted to participate. The art world is like a family and I wanted to also be involved in this dialogue of designing an Art Car. Today I’m proud that this car is there alongside their work too.”

Jeff Koons’ BMW Art Car will remain on display at Miami Beach Botanical Garden, across the entrance from the South Beach Convention Center at 2000 Convention Center Drive, until finally of the fair on December 8, 2013.

Another legendary “rolling sculpture”, created by Andy Warhol, will be on display in Art Basel's Collectors Lounge. The pop art icon painted a BMW M1 that raced in the 24-hour race at Le Mans in 1979.

The BMW Art Car Collection started when French racing driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain invited his friend Alexander Calder to design his BMW Le Mans 24-hour race car in 1975 and so the BMW Art Car was born. Since then some of the greatest names in contemporary art have been added to the collection creating a wide range of artistic interpretations and there are now 17 BMW Art Cars in total.

During Art Basel in Miami Beach, the BMW i8, the i brand’s high performance plug-in hybrid, will also make its East Coast debut, at a reception at the SLS Hotel in South Beach on December 5, 2013.

BMW has been a partner of Art Basel in Miami Beach since its inception and also provides the VIP shuttle service for the fair.

More information about the Art Car collection and images are available at: http://www.bmw-artcartour.com/

More information about the cultural commitment of the BMW Group is available at: www.bmwgroup.com/culture and www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview

BMW Group In America

BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975.  Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003.  The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, a strategic design consultancy in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country.  BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group’s global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all X5 and X3 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 Sports Activity Coupes.  The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 338 BMW passenger car and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 139 BMW motorcycle retailers, 119 MINI passenger car dealers, and 34 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers.  BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet at:

www.bmwgroupna.com.

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Journalist note: Information about BMW and its products in the USA is available to journalists on-line at www.bmwusanews.com. 

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