London’s West End was brought to a standstill this morning when a Swarovski crystal-encrusted Mini Cooper (£1m) was craned out of the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! attraction, to be replaced by a hand-knitted Ferrari.
It was removed ahead of a 5,000-mile cross-Atlantic adventure to its new home at the Ripley’s museum in Baltimore, USA. The Mini boasts more than one million coloured gems in 50 shades to represent the 50 different US states, and took six months to create.
Created by British artist Lauren Porter, the fluffy Ferrari took 10 months to make, using 12 miles of wool, 250 squares of garter stitching and a hand-embroidered horse logo on the front. Westminster Council gave special permission for the streets around Piccadilly Circus to be closed in the early hours.