He brought Fiat to Yugoslavia, was a symbol of Italy, and especially loved Juve: Gianni Agnelli lived life like in a movie

Gianni Agnelli, the richest man in modern Italian history. The extent of his wealth will best be shown by the fact that, as the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy’s GDP. If you were to ask any Italian, young or old, who is the embodiment of charm, a symbol of the Italian post-war renaissance, style and power, you would get only one answer – Agnelli, “L’Avvocato” (the lawyer), as he was affectionately called.

Turin, the mecca of the Fiat dynasty founded by his grandfather Giovanni in 1899. Although he was born there, he remained attached to the town of Villar Perosa, located 40 kilometers from the capital of the Piedmont province, an area that has become synonymous with Fiat because the Agnelli family estate has been located there since 1811.

Tragedy and war

Grandfather Giovanni raised Gianni after both his parents passed away when he was very young, father Edoardo died in a plane crash, mother Virginia in a car accident, just 15 days apart. At only 14 years old, before him lay a vast field of sorrow, wealth and loneliness. Grandpa Giovanni sympathized and advised him to enjoy himself while he could, that is, until he took over the reins at Fiat. The enjoyment had to wait though.

He also had to study, so he graduated from the Pinerolo Equestrian Academy and studied law in Turin, although he never practiced law, but law is responsible for his nickname.

He joined the tank regiment in June 1940 when Italy entered World War II on the side of the Axis powers. He fought on the Eastern Front, was wounded twice. He also served in the Fiat-built armored car division during the North African campaign, for which he was awarded the Military Cross of Valor. Agnelli became a liaison officer with the occupying American troops because of his fluency in English.

Ease of living and the most beautiful women in the world

The time had come for him to obey his grandfather, and he enjoyed to the fullest, the interregnum between the war and 1953, when he married Marela Caracolo, although even then he did not stop in his passions and hedonisms. Gianni raced through the streets of Monaco in one of his many cars, part of a generation of jet-set men, including Ali Khan and Porfirio Rubirosa, who perfected the art of the playboy in the 1950s. The carefree French Riviera was their main playground and wherever they happened to be, the cocktails flowed in laughter with the world’s models. His niece Isabella Ratazzi said that “he was involved in everything Italians loved: sex, cars and sports”.

Among the women Gianni seduced were Anita Ekberg, Rita Hayworth, Linda Christian and Pamela Churchill, daughter-in-law of Sir Winston Churchill. There were also rumors that he was involved with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy as the two spent some time at Villa Episcopio in Ravello and around the Amalfi Coast in the early 60s. The romance was never confirmed. When asked, Gianni said: “I don’t like to talk about women, I like to talk with them.” Photos of Gianni on that vacation with “Jackie O” or on other trips to Capri, Positano or Forte dei Marmi reveal where today’s classy Italians and people around the world get their fashion inspiration.

Fiat

During all that time, Vittorio Valletta (became director in 1928), anti-fascist, freemason, friend of the future president of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Saragatta, took care of Fiat. Even after the death of Giovanni, he remained in that place. He successfully steered the company in the 40s and 50s through the post-war industrial reconstruction of Italy.

From the moment he took over Fiat from Valletta in 1966, he became the most important company in Italy. He was considered the king of Italian business from the 1960s to the 1980s. Factories were opened in the Soviet Union, Spain, South America, and Brazil. He also established international alliances like the one with Ivek.

During the world energy crisis of the 1970s, he sold part of his company to Libya’s Lafiq, owned by Muammar Gaddafi, and Agnelli would later buy back those shares. In 1969 and 1970, Fiat was joined by Ferrari and Lanca. Through Ferrari, Agnelli is connected to Formula 1, and that cooperation resulted in successes with Niki Lauda and Jodi Schecter. At that time, Fiat was also expanding to the east, through agreements with Poland, Turkey and Yugoslavia.

In the eighties of the last century, increased sales of Fiat were recorded under Vittorio Gidello, Fiat Uno, Croma, Lancia Tema were created. In 1986, after a failed deal with Ford, Agnelli bought Alfa Romeo from the Italian state. In the 1990s, since Fiat was unable to penetrate non-European automotive markets, Agnelli decided to form an alliance with General Motors.

In 1991, Agnelli was appointed as an Italian senator for life, and in 1997 he briefly gained de facto control of Telecom Italia.

He changed his lifestyle only in the context of discretion and balancing. He still helicoptered down to Sestriere to ski, raced on the Corso Marconi in Turin, where the company’s offices were located until the end of the eighties. He was a regular visitor to the iconic buildings Hotel Du Cap and Villa Leopolda. During that time, he lived in the beautiful 19th-century Frescott House, where he later died. The magnificent villa on the hills of Turin was full of paintings by famous artists – Picasso, Monet, Balla, Fontana, while Mario Schifano painted the walls of the dining room.

He stepped down from the top position of Fiat in 1996, which was succeeded by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the first man of Ferrari, after the death of his younger brother Umberto.

Juventus

Agnelli was closely associated with the history of Juventus. His activities had an impact in the club like the activities of his father Edoardo Agnelli twenty years before (the attempt to buy Pele through Fiat shares, which the Brazilian Football Federation never agreed to). They did manage to buy Michel Platini, and Agnelli later stated: “We bought him for a piece of bread, and he put goose pate on it.”

Gianni Agnelli is credited with the Juventus era under Roberto Baggio and Alessandro Del Piero. In 1999, Juventus completed all five major UEFA competitions by winning the Intertoto Cup, and the following year was named the seventh best club of all time by FIFA.

Some observers state that Calciopoli and its aftermath was a dispute between the club’s owners that followed the deaths of Gianni and Umberto Agnelli. Many claimed that everything would have been different if Agnelli had stayed alive, that the name of the club would have been defended differently.

The king of style and the most famous Italian abroad

Esquire magazine once ranked him among the greats of style, along with Gary Cooper, King Edward III, the Duke of Windsor and dandy Bo Brummel. Nino Cerutti called Agnelli his greatest inspiration along with James Bond and John F. Kennedy. Smiling, with a cigarette in his mouth, he wore his tie askew on the signature Karaceni suits, known for their dropped shoulders, carefully measured reverses, and completely handmade buttonholes.

There were also the inevitable Tods moccasins, Rolex Daytona, green Ferrari Testarosa Spider, Wilbrokan shorts with a towel around his neck, and sometimes none of that while at the helm of one of his yachts, always accompanied by gorgeous beauties.

He will be remembered as a man of sharp intelligence and an unusual sense of humor, perhaps the most famous Italian abroad, especially in the United States and New York, where he created deep connections mainly through the Bilderberg Group, whose conferences he regularly attended from 1958.

His close friends were Henry Kissinger, John F. Kennedy, Truman Capote. David Rockefeller appointed him to the International Advisory Committee of the Chase Manhattan Bank, on whose board he sat for 30 years.

Politically, he remained independent and did not join any party, but was close to the Italian Republican Party. He was also an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee until his death.

When the country mourned his passing in 2003, people from all walks of life paid tribute to him. Gianni’s greatness lay in his ability to balance his passionate lust for life with business ambitions and leadership. Through 30 challenging years of union turbulence, terrorism, political scandals and ups and downs in the automotive industry, he managed to turn Fiat into a global conglomerate and an unequivocal symbol of Italy.