PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM

Description

Essentials about the Petersen Automotive Museum in brief

Car lovers have a fixed point in the city when traveling to Los Angeles: the Petersen Automotive Museum. Located right next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, it is one of the largest and most interesting automotive museums in the world. With its collection of 400 extravagant, precious and famous vehicles, the Petersen Automotive Museum is worth a visit for all people who like to take a look at some vehicles that you don’t see on the road every day.

The history of the Petersen Automotive Museum

Opened in 1994, the Petersen Automotive Museum traces its origins to a pair of avid car collectors, magazine publisher Robert E. Petersen and his wife Margie. Originally housed in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the museum was later relocated to a former department store owned by Ohrbach’s Department Store Group. The department store’s nearly windowless façade proved to be an ideal location for a car museum, as it protected the historic vehicles from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

After the death of the Petersen couple, the museum was continued by a foundation and extensively renovated in 2015. In the course of the renovation, the museum was given an unusually futuristic facade made of several stainless steel bands, which on some days causes slow-moving traffic in front of the museum building.

The collection of the Petersen Automotive Museum

The collection of the Petersen Automotive Museum consists of around 400 vehicles, of which a good 100 are on permanent display in the exhibition rooms. A further 300 or so models are stored in a warehouse (the so-called “Vault”) and come to light as part of temporary exhibitions. Those who wish can also view the automotive gems in the Vault, but must purchase an extra ticket to do so.

The Petersen Automotive Museum’s galleries are arranged according to different themes. The first floor features an exhibition of particularly artistic and extravagant vehicles. The second floor is all about industrial engineering, from design to motorsports. The third floor tells the story of the automobile with a special focus on the car culture of Southern California.

A highlight of the museum is the so-called “Precious Metal Gallery,” where only precious cars in silver are on display. Another highlight of the exhibition are cars that are well known from movies, such as the Ferrari 308 GTS Targa driven by Tom Selleck in Magnum, P.I. and the Batmobile from Batman Returns, as well as vehicles that once belonged to celebrities, such as Steve McQueen’s Jaguar XKSS and Elvis Presley’s De Tomaso Pantera.