BMW Art Car World Tour expands with Romania debut and Stockholm return

BMW Group presents Art Car World Tour stops in Romania and Stockholm, featuring Calder’s 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL and Mehretu’s BMW M Hybrid V8. Discover key details.

The very first BMW Art Car — Alexander Calder’s painted BMW 3.0 CSL from 1975 — is set to make its debut in Romania, marking a key moment in the global BMW Art Car World Tour, which has already spanned more than 30 countries and attracted over two million visitors.

The next stop takes place in Bucharest at RAD Art Fair from April 23 to 26, where the car that launched the entire collection will be shown in the country for the first time. Unlike later exhibition-focused works, this Art Car was created as a functioning race car and competed in the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans. The idea to merge art and motorsport came from racing driver and art dealer Hervé Poulain, who invited Calder to transform the vehicle into a moving artwork.

At the same time, the tour returns to Stockholm, where BMW continues its partnership with Market Art Fair for the fifth consecutive year. The 2026 edition features the most recent addition to the collection — BMW Art Car #20 by Julie Mehretu, based on the BMW M Hybrid V8 prototype. The car debuted at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2024 and later appeared at Le Mans, continuing the long-standing connection between Art Cars and endurance racing.

The BMW Art Car Collection has evolved over five decades and now includes 20 vehicles created by internationally renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons, and Olafur Eliasson. The project remains part of BMW’s broader cultural engagement, which spans more than 50 years and includes over 100 initiatives across art, music, architecture, and design.

The latest chapter extends beyond the cars themselves. Mehretu’s project has led to the creation of the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC), an initiative connecting artists and filmmakers from across Africa and its diaspora. The program includes workshops in multiple cities and will culminate in the exhibition “Scaling Intentions” at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town from December 2026 to August 2027.

The scale of the tour underscores its ambition. Alongside the Bucharest and Stockholm presentations, Denmark hosts Northern Europe’s largest BMW Art Car exhibition, featuring eleven vehicles and original artist models. The journey will conclude with its largest showcase yet at BMW Welt in Munich from July 29 to August 31, 2026.

By expanding into new locations — including its first appearance in Romania — the tour continues to connect diverse art scenes and reinforce its role as a platform linking contemporary art, technology, and global cultural exchange.