Most of county car collection to take a jaunt
Los Angeles County’s car collection could be caravaning off the Miracle Mile as soon as this month.
After 2 1/2 years of negotiations, the Petersen Automotive Museum will clear out 60 historic automobiles and motorcycles owned by the county from the facility’s basement on Wilshire Boulevard, hoping to use the 10,000-square-foot space for expanded exhibits.
County supervisors voted Tuesday to move the vintage vehicles to a climate-controlled warehouse in Gardena, where they’ll sit while the Natural History Museum helps create a plan for their display.
But seven county-owned cars, including a steam-powered vehicle from 1901 and a 1963 burnt orange Chrysler Turbine, will remain in the Petersen’s permanent collection.
While the Petersen restores its antique cars to like-new condition, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County emphasizes “conserving and preserving what’s there, not necessarily restoring a vehicle to showroom condition or what it would have looked like at the time it was sold,” said Beth Werling, collections manager in the Exposition Park museum’s history department.
The two museums’ “missions don’t quite match up,” said Bob Moran, a principal analyst with the county’s chief executive office.
“It does not make sense to spend large sums of dollars on real estate to store vehicles that are never going to be displayed,” said Supervisor Mike Antonovich. “It’s not helping the county, and it’s not helping the community.” Supervisors urged caution in evaluating the cars and requested a report back before any are sold. The Natural History Museum has no plans to sell the vehicles, Werling said.
The county originally housed its automotive collection at the Petersen in 1994, when the museum was still part of the Natural History Museum. When the Petersen became an independent facility in 2000, the museum entered a 35-year agreement with the county to store the cars free; the county terminated that contract Tuesday at the automotive museum’s request.
The county’s rare and antique cars are in poor condition, with missing tires and headlights and rotting paint, said Dick Messer, director of the Petersen, who added that county conservators are opposed to restoring the cars.
“Most of the cars are not displayable in the condition they’re in now,” Messer said. “We’re not talking about your Lexus here. These are old cars.”
Werling said the cars were in varying conditions, with the 1984 Olympic torch relay Buick Riviera convertible in excellent shape.
A 1916 Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a Depression-era bakery truck are among the vehicles moving to storage. One of the most prized cars to be transferred is a rare 1917 hybrid gas and electric car, now part of an alternative-fuels display at the Petersen.
“I frankly am very thrilled that they’re coming back,” Werling said. Some will become part of the renovated Natural History Museum’s permanent displays, and others could be lent to other museums, she said. County officials anticipate that the labor-intensive vehicle shuffle using transporter trucks will happen later this month.
susannah.rosenblatt@latimes.com
