Meet the man who bought a Ferrari Luce for $40m

“We were discussing it amongst ourselves,” Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna tells us. “And there were different opinions. Personally, I thought this car might achieve $5m, but in the end it exceeded our expectations.”

To put it mildly. TG.com was present for RM Sotheby’s keenly anticipated Saturday evening Monterey auction, and it was genuinely standing room only as the ex-Nick Mason McLaren F1 GTR hammered down for a record-breaking $34.65m. We wandered by the white Ferrari Luce as we left the venue, confident that we’d witnessed the evening’s big showbiz moment.

Oops. Luce 'Chassis 0' was sold a few hours later for $40m, a sum of money that sent the internet – as we know, no fan of the electric Ferrari – into a form of rage yet to be formally identified by psychologists. Even the non-enraged wondered if Ferrari was guilty of trying to ‘save face’ by engineering an elaborate publicity stunt, underpinned by the fact that every cent of the sum raised would be going to charity. Others assumed that the buyer was engaged in a very public tax write-off.

I didn’t get to verify that with Herbie Wertheim when I met him briefly in the foyer of Pebble Beach’s main lodge 12 hours later. But I was happy to shake the man’s hand, and he certainly seemed to be in full possession of his faculties. And a rather nice red hat. Mere yards away on this most gilded of fairways were some of the finest Ferraris in the world, including a handful of 250 GTOs, a 275 GTB/4 NART Spider, and my personal favourite, a 250 GT Sperimentale Coupe.

Even by Pebble Beach’s lofty standards, 2026 was a vintage year. Yet all of these, and even the eventual ‘best of show’, the ex-Clark Gable Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster, were upstaged, conversationally at least, by – gasp – an electric Ferrari.

So, what can we conclude? Well, it’s safe to say Wertheim is not the sort of figure interested in participating in PR stunts, although his presence on a stage in the Casa Ferrari VIP area with his new purchase suggested that he was enjoying his new-found notoriety. Aged 87, Wertheim has developed a taste for Ferraris and making mischievous statements with them. A year ago, at RM Sotheby’s big ticket Monterey week auction, Wertheim rocked the car world by dropping $26m on a Ferrari Daytona SP3. Same deal: all proceeds to the company’s educational foundation. That was his first Ferrari. This year, he went $13m better – but acquired rather fewer cylinders. (None, in fact, but that’s electric cars for you.)

The man himself is fascinating, a true philanthropist of the old school. Wertheim was born in Philadelphia in 1939 and endured a difficult childhood and skirmishes with his early educators. Dyslexic he may have been, but he also had a talent for inventing and subsequently made his name as a pioneer in Ophthalmology. He discovered that ultra-violet light causes cataracts and subsequently invented a UV-absorbing dye for plastic eyeglass lenses.

His company, Brain Power Inc., became one of the world’s largest manufacturers of optical tints and ophthalmic chemicals, and personally has 100 patents registered in his name. He also invested astutely – getting in early on Apple and Microsoft. When you have a net worth of $4.6bn, you can afford to make a splash buying a controversial new Ferrari.

Luce, of course, means light. Herbie Wertheim doesn’t just have a profound understanding of the science of light, he’s made a fortune out of it. And he’s happy to give chunks of it away in exchange for attention-grabbing cars. Enlightenment, you might say.