Here lies Bertone, the famed Italian automotive design house, bankrupt and on almost on the verge of death. The once legendary company was forced to sell its most prized possessions – six concept cars – to appease the bankruptcy commission and also to remain afloat. RM Auctions of London handle the sale at this past weekend’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2011.

So what delectable concepts were the vultures able to get their beaks into? Well, there’s the 1967 Lamborghini Marzal that once graced the Monaco Grand Prix and is often cited as the inspiration for the Espada of the following year.

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Italy's famed but troubled design house Bertone made a comeback at this year's edition of the Geneva Salon with a new sports car concept designed to celebrate Alfa Romeo's 100th anniversary.

Named after a species of raptors, more commonly referred to as the sea hawk, Bertone's Pandion concept is loosely based on the Alfa Romeo 8c Competizone using the same high-revving 450HP 4.7-liter V8 engine.

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Joining the celebrations for Alfa Romeo's centenary, Stile Bertone will pop the covers off a new concept model at next month's Geneva Salon. The Italian design house, which was recently left independent after the Fiat Group acquired the firm's manufacturing facilities, released a shady teaser sketch of the Alfa Romeo concept that is rumored (but not confirmed) to be based on the 8c Competizione model.

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Many may find the Bertone Mantide's design controversial, to say the least, but there's no doubt that every rare supercar has its place in the world of automotive collectors. So it comes to no surprise that according to Bertone's chief designer and the man at fault responsible for the Mantide's styling, Jason Castriota, the Italian firm could produce as many as 10 units of the Corvette ZR1-based sportscar.

"The project has an anonymous benefactor, but it is in fact for sale either as a singular example, or with the possibility of building an extremely limited series," Castriota told the NY Times in an e-mail message. "At the moment there is considerable interest around the world as we have been contacted by potential clients in Asia, Europe and America," he added.

Despite its relatively humble underpinnings - humble in the sense that a Corvette ZR1 will set you back a 'mere' $104,920 or about €79,000, the Mantide's price will hover close to a staggering $2,000,000 or around €1,500,000. Like it or not, we have no doubt that there's a handful of people out there who will be more than willing to pay such a high price to own a supercar like the Mantide.

Via: NY Times

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We've pretty much summed up our feelings about John Castriota's Corvette ZR1-based Bertone Mantide in our previous post here, so we're not going to get into the design discussion again. Just hit the jump to watch to watch the coupe's presentation from the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this month, and don't forget to lower the volume of your speakers because you're probably going to get as annoyed as we did the music background.

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