Screen & Culture

The Whale Leather Story: The Monaco Red Diamond and Pamela Anderson

By DARTZ Editorial · 21 October 2026

In 2009 DARTZ offered its Prombron’ Monaco Red Diamond Edition with an interior upholstered in whale-penis leather. As Leonard F. Yankelovich later told The Autopian, it was old stock from before the 1986 whaling moratorium, chosen because it was soft and came in large single pieces. Animal-rights campaigners and Pamela Anderson protested; DARTZ answered with a Save the Whales car for her. The interior lives on as the Ari O Yacht Style Interior.

Some car companies become famous for a lap time. DARTZ became famous for a seat.

The Monaco Red Diamond

In 2009 DARTZ announced the Prombron’ Monaco Red Diamond Edition, and in 2010 it was shown at Top Marques Monaco. Carscoops described it as fully bulletproof, with gold-plated bulletproof windows, a tungsten exhaust and white-gold gauges set with diamonds and rubies. One option on its list made it famous far beyond the car world: an interior upholstered in whale-penis leather.

A DARTZ Prombron’ outside the Casino de Monte-Carlo

Where the leather came from

In September 2026 The Autopian’s Jason Torchinsky asked Leonard F. Yankelovich for the real story. The leather, he said, was old stock, bought in the 1980s before the 1986 whaling moratorium, through a family leather business in the United Kingdom. It was chosen for practical reasons. “Just very soft, very big, easy to cut on big seat,” he said. Asked whether it had been a publicity stunt, he answered: “Never. I have zero vision.”

The same supply, The Autopian reported, had likely upholstered the bar stools of Aristotle Onassis’s yacht a generation earlier.

The row

Animal-rights campaigners protested, and so did Pamela Anderson, in public. The headlines ran from HuffPost to Norway’s VG. In DARTZ’s own telling, she threatened to leave its founder without an important part of his anatomy. DARTZ answered in its own way: it built her a Save the Whales car. “Now, all good,” the DARTZ Black Book says.

According to The Autopian, DARTZ also issued a statement in 2009 to its “sea brothers”, reminding them that, as legend has it, the earth stands on three whales, and promising to keep them alive.

A HuffPost report on Pamela Anderson’s protest against the DARTZ Prombron’ Monaco Red Diamond Edition

Ari O Yacht Style

The interior did not disappear. It was renamed. DARTZ now calls it the Ari O Yacht Style Interior and describes it as reimagined in ethically sourced materials, inspired by the finest yachts. It is available to DARTZ clients through the Department of Opulence.

Extreme close-up of hand stitching on exotic leather

What it says about DARTZ

The story has followed DARTZ for more than fifteen years, and DARTZ has never pretended it didn’t happen. Its Black Book lists it plainly: the name that shook the world made DARTZ famous. It is the same instinct behind everything else DARTZ makes: bespoke means no two clients get the same thing, and natural materials only. See why DARTZ says opulence.

About DARTZ

DARTZ is a Riga carrosserie that builds bespoke, opulent vehicles, armoured or non-armoured, in strictly limited numbers. It calls them BONDs: Bespoke Opulent Noble Drives.

Its heritage runs back to the Russo-Baltic Wagon Factory (RBVZ), founded in Riga in 1869, whose automobile department built its first car in 1909. Leonard F. Yankelovich revived that heritage as DARTZ in 1988. The group, DARTZ Grupa OÜ, is registered in Tallinn, Estonia.

Its Prombron’ models, from the Iron Diamond and Black Dragon to the Black Shark, Black Alligator and Black Stallion, have been covered by Top Gear, Forbes, Robb Report and Fox News, among many others.

Questions we are asked

Did DARTZ really use whale-penis leather?

Yes. The 2009 Prombron’ Monaco Red Diamond Edition offered it. Leonard F. Yankelovich told The Autopian it was old stock from before the 1986 whaling moratorium.

Why did DARTZ choose it?

Yankelovich told The Autopian it was very soft and came in one big piece, which made it easy to cut for a large seat, and denied it was chosen for hype.

What did Pamela Anderson do?

She protested against the car. DARTZ says it answered by creating a Save the Whales car for her, and that all is now good.

What was the Monaco Red Diamond Edition?

A fully armoured Prombron’ shown at Top Marques Monaco in 2010, with gold-plated bulletproof windows, a tungsten exhaust and white-gold gauges set with gems, as Carscoops reported.

What is the Ari O Yacht Style Interior?

The name DARTZ now gives to the interior once known for whale leather, reimagined with ethically sourced materials and inspired by the finest yachts.