I purchased the Cinelli. I think it has a lot going for it. It is my first really old nice bike. It has excellent chrome and the original Cinelli headset Steel Bars and stem, well preserved, ridden by an old lady. It comes right from Italy. The guy selling it was well informed and packed it as I required, all parts removed and packed separately.
I have been following the paint or not to paint thread closely. I have the same quirk as the rest of you. I collect mechanical things in general. Some things look good a little rusty. Old machines that will never work again especially, and it is crime to refinish or paint antique furniture. As for bikes, to me it depends on the amount of use. If it is a classic with history or unique is some way that makes it disadvantageous to ride it then I think preservation is the way to go. However it looks, is part of its life up to that point, a collection of events that make it what it is and to redo it or modify it would be a breaking a departure. I saw a Confente that fit that bill. It had an old paint job, not too rusty but the paint had a tremendous crackelature that you could not match in a million years. It gave the bike gravity.
Sometimes I want to give things a new life. A new paint job, new decals, even a new part or two. I want to make it mine, a reflection of my taste in old bikes.
Overall to paint or to conserve depends on the object, its history, and your desire for it.
Stewart
Brooklyn.