Sotheby’s Italy: a record auction
Yesterday, 16 June, the only Italian auction of the semester of Sotheby’s.
Opened on June 4, the auction, which was due to be held in Milan at the end of April, took place online, achieving the best result in Europe for the fashion house, with an overall estimate of 7 million euros.
He leads the results of the Italian Giorgio Morandi auction with two Nature Deaths: the first one dated 1951 (estimate of 750,000-1,000,000) was awarded at 1,452,500 euros, The second in 1948 (estimate of 650/850,000) was awarded at a cost of 1,068,500. It follows Alberto Burri with Combustion CP 4 of 1964 (estimate of 200/300,000), a fine example of the Plastics series, awarded well above the estimated figures of 552,500. Artist’s shit No. 82 of 1961 by Piero Manzoni at auction at 120/180,000 was awarded after 13 bids at 250,000 euros.
Among the foreign artists stand out the results of Liu Ye’s works at auction with The Last Tempter of 2006, an acrylic on canvas valued at 180/250,000 and assigned to .275,000; Robert Rauschenbeg with Gooseberry from the Hoarfrost series doubles the initial estimate to reach .118,750, and Yayoi Kusama’s work, Dots Accumulation, an example that adheres to creativity from the Japanese artist’s compulsive repetition, has sold for a whopping 237,500.
The auction of Fausto Melotti’s sculpture is also noteworthy, author of Planetarium steel and brass dated 1981, coming from a private German collection and estimated at 60,000-80,000 was awarded after 22 bids at 250,000 euros.
The artist Francesco Vezzoli, in a tribute to Lucio Fontana and his country, has created the work Italy is us, an acrylic with water and pencil painting on canvas on which it bears the wound and the void left by the pandemic, awarded at 87,500. The image has become a universal symbol of reflection and hope, and the proceeds of the sale will be donated to the research project on Covid-19 of the Polyclinic of Milan.
