04/10/2001
by Elena Balzani

After being shown in Milan, Zurich (and Paris from the 10^th to the 11^th of October) by way of its pre-auction promotion, the Christie’s Italian Sale - will wind its way back to London for the auction on the 23^rd of October at its King Street premises. The only chance to see the works in Italy was on the 27^th of September at the "Marino alla Scala Events", in Milan, where roughly half of the lots were on show.

On offer are works by the Futurists: Balla and Severini, as well as the more metaphysical works of de Chirico and Morandi. Sculptures by Marini, Manzu` and Melotti can be had as well as Informalists such as Vedova, Manzoni, Castellani and Fontana, and Neo-avant-garde works by Boetti and Merz, as well as Clemente and Paladino are available. Maurizio Cattelan and Elisa Sighicelli are among the most recent generation of artists on offer, and for the first time at Christie’s Italian sales, photographs by Gabriele Basilico, Franco Fontana and Mimmo Jodice are up for auction.

Christie’s are hoping to raise over $ 7.3 million (€ 7.9 million) from the auction, with many of the lots priced between $ 30,000 (€ 32,570) and $ 500,000 (€ 542,770). Still-Life with bottle, glass and dish with artichoke painted in 1935 by Filippo De Pisis is estimated at $ 30,000-44,000 (€ 33,000-49,000) while Gino Severini’s Still Life in front of a Window (mandolin on a pedestal) dating from the artist’s stint in Paris (1918) has an estimate of around $ 520,000 (€ 570,000) (although privately, experts don’t rule out the work fetching its top-end estimate of $ 800,000, € 890,000). The same estimate has been given to another Still Life, a 1929 oil on canvas by Giorgio Morandi, with provenance from the Zug Art Museum in Switzerland. The painting was shown at the Roman Quadrennial in 1931 and is one of the very few 1928-1930 still-lifes by the artist to have been put up for auction since 1990. "We’ll be putting forward a previously unseen work by de Chirico dating from 1920 in the London sale, as well as the work from the Zug Art Museum" says Olivier Camu, the expert in charge of the Italian Sale. The de Chirico painting, entitled Miss Amata, has only just been discovered and was put up for sale by the sitter’s heirs.

Another new piece which will appeal to the art market is Pino Pascali’s Mitragliatrice (a metal and mixed media sculpture of a sub-machine gun), which is estimated at $ 120,000-180,000 (€ 130,000-190,000). This metal sculpture belongs to the famous "Armi" ("weapons"): a series of works begun by Pascali in 1965, at the time of the first demonstrations against the Vietnam war. Shown in 1968 by Sperone in Turin, it is now up for sale in auction for the first time. In view of the escalating crisis in the Middle East and looming war, Migliatrice is a poignant work.

Osvaldo Licini, one of the most original of Italian abstractionists, will have his international debut in this sale: Flying Dutch Figure (22.5 x 28.2 cm) has an estimate of $ 74,000-120,000 (€ 81,000-130,000). The growing interest in post-1945 Italian painting is reflected in the sale of Birolli’s Incendio Notturno (1956), a large oil on canvas measuring 97 x 130 cm. On the Italian market, his "Fires" series are Birolli’s most sought after paintings as can be seen from the sale of Incendio dell Cinque Terre which sold at Finarte Rome, in 1996 for a record $ 59,000 (€ 64,140). As is the norm in these Italian sales, a good number of oils and ceramics by Lucio Fontana are available. On offer are Concetto Spaziale with cut slashes on a black painted canvas, dating from 1960-1961, and quoted at $ 240,000-320,000 (€ 260,000-360,000) and a 1959 Concetto Spaziale with slashes on a green background and an estimate of $ 180,000-260,000 (€ 200,000-290,000). Other notable pieces are a small, red, triangular work called Concetto spaziale, Teatrino dating from 1964 (81 x 74 cm) which is up for sale along with a preparatory drawing and an estimate of $ 110,000-140,000 (€ 130,000-150,000) and a yellow Concetto Spaziale with holes (oil, waterpaint and glitter) from 1952, which is estimated at $ 120,000-180,000 (€ 130,000-190,000).

Amongst the works also worth watching are a large oil on canvas (119 x 90 cm) by Magnelli from 1918, entitled Explosion lyrique no. XV which came up for sale in 1990 when the Bourdon da Loudmer collection was sold off. Back then this work hammered for $ 697,350 (€ 757,000), a record sale for Magnelli at auction.

Of the lots on offer by contemporary artists, Maurizio Cattelan leads the way, with Strategies, a fragile construction of 56 Flash Art magazines (total size 168 x 76 x 20.5 cm), that looks like a house of cards. Estimate $ 74,000-100,000 (€ 81,000-110,000). A smaller version of the work (68 x 76 x 20.5 cm) sold a year ago in Sotheby’s, Italian sale, for $ 30,742 (€ 23,200), against an estimate of $ 14,637-21,955 (€ 15,900-23,830). Another contemporary artist is Elisa Sighicelli whose Monterey: Armchairs, a partially black-lit c-print on light-box, shows an interior with a table and window. It is valued at $ 3,700-5,100 (€ 4,100-5,700).