Instead of "post" I should have written "asparagus".
I knew that I had seen that sculpture somewhere. It reminded me of Miro or Wilfredo Lam. I never found Max Ernst.
But I knew the car and its link with Packard. I found it easily on a page I had already seen. And there I read:
"Its value is now largely ornamental; under Nance, Packard styling will stick to lines that are ‘architecturally correct,’ forgo the lunar asparagus". The rest was easy.
The sculpture is Max Ernst 1935 "Lunar Asparagus", the car is a Scaglione/Bertone/Abarth creation once "...purchased by Packard and brought to Detroit where it was used in Packard’s design studio..." and later dubbed by Fortune magazine Associate Editor Richard Austin Smith as "lunar asparagus".
For the whole story, see:
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