Italy: Ferrari to auction 1.3 mln-euro vehicle to help quake victims

Rome, 31 May (AKI) - Ferrari will auction luxury sports cars to aid relief efforts in northern Italy where a pair of earthquakes have killed at least 23 people, left around 20,000 people homeless and caused billions-of-euros in damage.

"At the beginning of next week we'll hold a big global auction via the internet, even putting cars up for grabs to help the families of victims that were for the most part labourers," Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo told reporters in Rome on Thursday.

Among the Ferrari's to be put on the auction block will be a Ferrari 599XX Evo, valued at 1.3 million euros, according to La Stampa, a Turin daily owned by the Agnelli family, who controls Ferrari corporate parent Fiat.

Other objects to be sold are Formula 1 memorabilia like helmets and racing uniforms belonging to Ferrari pilots Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

The quakes caused modern and ancient structures to crack and crumble.

Three factory workers where among the victims, perishing when a warehouse collapsed in the town of San Felice sul Panaro. Nine days earlier a ceramics factory in Sant'Agostino collapsed killing four people working a late-night shift.

The Italian government has estimated damage at 5 billion euros.