On May 26 and 27, Il Ponte Casa d’Aste returns with its Modern and Contemporary Art auction: a catalogue interweaving rediscoveries, works of extraordinary provenance, and exceptional quality.
A unique journey through artists and movements that shaped, interpreted, and defined the art of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The sale opens with the heart of early twentieth-century Italian art, featuring a remarkable collection of works by Alberto Martini from the artist’s heirs. A brilliant precursor of Symbolism and Surrealism, and a key figure in the transition between these two movements in Italy, Martini continues to astonish with his ability to anticipate artistic trends that would shape twentieth-century art. The selection includes drawings, ink works, and a pastel of outstanding quality and scale, highlighting the depth and innovation of his expressive language.
The auction continues with Cagnaccio di San Pietro, represented by a precious group of works on paper and an oil on panel from an important private collection. These are unique testimonies to a pictorial language that is rigorous, sensual, daring, and refined.
The undisputed highlight of the auction, for both rarity and importance, is Medardo Rosso’s wax masterpiece Enfant juif (lot 36, €70,000–80,000). The artist deliberately interrupts the creative process before the sculptures reach full completion, leaving the works in a state of precariousness and suspension, where matter and form seem on the verge of dissolving. Wax, Rosso’s preferred material, becomes the protagonist, evoking fragility, memory, and a slow, poetic process of dissolution between life and disappearance.
Lot 36
Medardo Rosso "Enfant juif", wax, 26x14.5x20.5.
Estimate € 70,000 - 80,000
Among the major works on offer is also Mino Rosso’s Elementi in volo (1927) (lot 22, €15,000–25,000), a bronze sculpture representing an extraordinary example of Turin Futurism. With an exceptional pedigree, the work has been exhibited in numerous international exhibitions and is documented in comprehensive bibliography, attesting to its historical and artistic significance.
Futurism is further represented by emblematic figures such as Fortunato Depero, Tullio Crali, Gino Severini, and Umberto Boccioni, whose work helped shape the visual and dynamic experimentation of the early twentieth century.
Lot 22
Mino Rosso "Elementi in volo" 1927, bronze, cm 73x53.5x18.
Estimate € 15,000 - 25,000
Continuing through the catalogue, the soul of Italian art in the first half of the twentieth century is embodied by other indispensable names including Giorgio de Chirico (lot 26, €15,000–20,000), Giorgio Morandi (lot 37, €100,000–150,000), Gino Severini, Carlo Carrà, Massimo Campigli, and Felice Casorati — all artists who contributed to defining modernity and its momentum.
Among the highlights stands Felice Casorati’s Fanciulla che dorme (1955) (lot 35, €35,000–50,000), a work that fully represents the artistic maturity of the Novara-born master, suspended between formal harmony and poetic introspection, testifying to the artist’s ability to combine structural rigor with intense emotional sensitivity.
Lot 26
Giorgio de Chirico "Natura morta" 1943, olio su tavola, cm 37x46.5.
Estimate € 15,000 - 20,000
Lot 37
Giorgio Morandi "Fiori" 1946, oil on canvas, cm 20.3x25.5.
Estimate € 100,000 - 150,000
Lot 35
Felice Casorati "Fanciulla che dorme" 1955, oil on canvas, cm 90x55.
Estimate € 35,000 - 50,000
The section dedicated to Informal Art presents important national and international works by artists such as Hans Hartung (lot 55, €15,000–20,000), Gérard Schneider, Toshimitsu Imai, Toti Scialoja, Serge Poliakoff, and Paul Jenkins.
Lot 55
Hans Hartung "T1966-K13" 1966, acrylic on canvas, cm 65x50.
Estimate € 15,000 - 20,000
Previously unseen works by the Forma 1 Group are also included, among them a 2011 canvas by Carla Accardi (lot 69, €30,000–50,000), as well as works by Giulio Turcato.
Lot 69
Carla Accardi "Direzione veloce" 2011, acrylic on canvas, cm 100x120.
Estimate € 30,000 - 50,000
Particular prominence is given to Bruno Munari’s Macchina Aritmica (1952) (lot 82, €30,000–40,000), a unique work in sheet iron with clockwork mechanism. Having passed through important private collections and featured in significant international exhibitions, the work exemplifies Munari’s ability to transform conceptual thinking into dynamic experience, where art and movement merge into a poetic and ingenious language.
Lot 82
Bruno Munari "Macchina Aritmica" 1952, sheet iron and clockwork mechanism, h cm 78.
Estimate € 30,000 - 40,000
Within the Pop Art section emerge iconic works by Mario Schifano (lot 114, €35,000–45,000) and Giosetta Fioroni, protagonists of a season that revolutionized the imagery and symbols of mass culture.
Lot 114
Mario Schifano "Dada Festival" 1965, enamel, graphite and collage on canvas, cm 73x60.
Estimate € 35,000 - 45,000
In the chapter dedicated to Concrete Art, Max Bill (lot 78, €70,000–90,000) stands out prominently, alongside the leading figures of the Azimuth Group, including Enrico Castellani and Agostino Bonalumi, interpreters of a formal experimentation that redefined space and visual perception.
Lot 78
Max Bill "Konzentration gegen gelb" 1964-75, oil on canvas, diagonal cm 170, sides cm 120x120.
Estimate € 70,000 - 90,000
Among the most significant works in this sale is Study for Homage to the Square: Full Tenor (1959) by Josef Albers (lot 75, €200,000–300,000), an oil on masonite. Exhibited by major international galleries, the work stands as one of the absolute peaks of the celebrated Homage to the Square series, in which rigorous investigation into colour and geometric relationships is transformed into an essential and radical synthesis of modern abstraction.
Lot 75
Josef Albers "Study for Homage to the Square: Full Tenor" 1959, oil on masonite, cm 45.7x45.7.
Estimate € 200,000 - 300,000
Completing the journey is a refined group of Fausto Melotti’s polychrome glazed ceramics, created between the 1950s and 1960s and coming from important private collections. From vases to forms such as Pesce (lot 97, €4,000–6,000), these works reveal a subtle balance between lightness and structure, where colour and material become vehicles for a silent and suspended poetry, confirming the artist’s central role in the history of twentieth-century Italian sculpture.
Lot 97
Fausto Melotti "Pesce" 1955 circa, polychrome glazed ceramic.
Estimate € 4,000 - 6,000
The selection also features a 1937 work by Wifredo Lam (lot 46, € 25,000-35,000) and Roberto Matta’s Musique-Nage (1986) (lot 45, €15,000–20,000), both testifying to the visionary and innovative power of twentieth-century Latin American art.
Lot 46
Wifredo Lam “Utitled” [Cabeza], mixed media on canvas-backed paper, cm 63x47.
Estimate € 25,000 - 35,000
Lot 45
Roberto Matta "Musique-Nage / (Nager dans la musique)" 1986, oil on canvas, cm 104x96.
Estimate € 15,000 - 20,000
As tradition dictates, ample space is devoted to sculpture — the department’s hallmark — with works of remarkable scenographic impact by Carmelo Cappello, Igor Mitoraj (lot 41, €10,000–15,000), Alberto Viani (lot 72, € 20,000 - 30,000), Luigi Ontani, and Bruno Munari.
Finally, with the aim of engaging ever more closely with new generations of collectors, on May 28 a session entirely dedicated to Prints and Artist Multiples will take place, featuring around ninety lots distinguished by their fascinating technical and chronological variety.
Lot 41
Igor Mitoraj "Tybris bianco" 1999, ceramic, cm 44x31x24.
Estimate € 10,000 - 15,000
Lot 72
Alberto Viani "Nudo seduto" 1949, bronze, cm 125x84x55.
Estimate € 20,000 - 30,000