BMW Art Cars anniversary show in Munich closes with record 120,000 visitors

The anniversary exhibition BMW ART CARS – 20 ARTISTS, 50 YEARS OF INNOVATION. REUNITED AT BMW WELT was held at BMW Welt in Munich from 29 July to 31 August 2026 and attracted more than 120,000 visitors. For the first time, all 20 BMW Art Cars were presented together in one place. The free show ranged from Alexander Calder's 1975 artwork to Julie Mehretu's 2024 car. A particular highlight was Olafur Eliasson's BMW H2R Project, a hydrogen-powered prototype presented publicly as a complete frozen installation for the fourth time since its world premiere in 2007.

From September 30, 2026, the BMW Welt App will offer selected content on the creation and history of the Art Car Collection, plus extensive image and video material, so users can explore the evolution of the BMW Art Cars over five decades anytime, anywhere. For the first time, the collection is also being incorporated into current production vehicles: in BMW Panoramic iDrive, five selected BMW Art Cars can be integrated as widgets into the individually configurable display of BMW Panoramic Vision in almost all markets. Users can choose a preferred Art Car and make it a personal part of their digital driving experience, with Panoramic Vision projecting content across the entire width of the windscreen from A-pillar to A-pillar alongside other information and applications. The rolling sculptures will also remain physically on the move, with BMW Art Car #6 by Robert Rauschenberg shown at the BMW Museum from September 3 and BMW Art Car #20 by Julie Mehretu traveling to Cape Town for Turning Towards the Sun at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa from December 11, 2026 to August 15, 2027.

The BMW Art Car Collection was founded in 1975 when French racing driver and art auctioneer Hervé Poulain and Jochen Neerpasch, then Head of BMW Motorsport, invited artist Alexander Calder to transform a race car into a work of art. The resulting BMW 3.0 CSL competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1975 and quickly became a crowd favourite. Today the collection comprises 20 artworks by renowned artists including Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Esther Mahlangu, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Jeff Koons, Cao Fei and Julie Mehretu, each with their own artistic perspective.

The BMW Welt presentation traced five decades of artistic engagement with art and design, technology and innovation, motorsport and engineering, and it marked the finale of the BMW Art Car World Tour, the largest exhibition project in the history of the collection. Since March 2025, the tour made 60 stops in more than 30 countries across five continents and attracted more than two million visitors at leading art fairs, museums, motorsport events and cultural institutions worldwide. Highlights included Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Dubai, Auto Shanghai, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Le Mans Classic, the Louwman Museum in The Hague, Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and The Bridge in the United States, Contemporary Istanbul, the Zoute Grand Prix in Belgium, the ADI Design Museum in Milan, Rétromobile in Paris, the RAD Art Fair in Bucharest, and the Market Art Fair in Stockholm. Prior to the closing exhibition, the tour also stopped at the Classic Car House in Copenhagen, Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este on Lake Como and the Munich Opera Festival.