translated by Giorgina Arcuri

On 26th May, Christie’s Milan held a unique event for Italian collectors who are passionate about modern and contemporary art.
Indeed, at Palazzo Clerici the public could attend the auctioning of works executed by artists that have somehow marked the history of Italian 20th-century art: Agostino Bonalumi, Mario Sironi, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Renato Guttuso and many more. For the economic market of Milan it was an important auction under different aspects. Firstly, for its total sales equivalent to 10,703,340 euros, with a 64% sale percentage. Secondly, for the new world records set on this occasion by Emilio Vedova and Tancredi 
Emilio Vedova was presented in Christie’s catalogue only with three paintings, two of which achieved surprising results. The work that definitely aroused more attention in the public was “Ciclo 61/61 N°2″, sold for 776,750 euros, breaking the Venetian artist’s previous record, which dates back to November 2007, when Christie’s Milan sold “Documento 2 - Aggressività” for 622,700 euros.
This is a painting executed in 1961-62, in which the dominating features of Vedova’s art stand out, as his free stroke and his physicality towards the canvas are interdependent and appear clearly in this work. Vedova feels the margins of the canvas as a constraint, a limitation; the surface is completely covered by paint with wide and strong moves; the spreading technique is directly comparable to American all over painting, particularly to Pollock’s poetics. If paint takes all the available surface, even colour is spread on all the visible spectrum: the most vivid tone is found in the pure red combined with yellow touches that represent a counterpoint to the cold tones that dominate the canvas. Other two works by Vedova were presented: “Senza Titolo” from 1960 sold for 189,200 euros and “Senza Titolo (Oltre-3)” sold for 15,320 euros.
As mentioned above, the Milanese sale witnessed another world record. Indeed, besides Emilio Vedova’s new world top-price, also Tancredi achieved a new personal record with an oil on canvas from 1957 entitled “Natura e contemplatività”, which from a pre-sale estimate included between 18 and 25 thousand euros, sold for 539,750 euros, exceeding his previous result achieved in May 2007, when “Senza Titolo” was sold by Christie’s Milan for 320 thousand euros. “Natura e contemplatività” is a painting of great aesthetic elegance, it is a true catalogue of spring and summer colours, dominated by yellow, red, orange, blue and green on a luminous white background. In the painting there is an actual explosion of light, in which Tancredi achieves the main objective of research on colour of modern painters.
Extraordinary result also for Enrico Castellani’s “Superficie”, estimated at 80-120 thousand euros and at the end of the auction sold for 403,400 euros, but also “Superficie Rossa”, another work by Castellani, which totalled 264,800 euros.
Unmissable the numerous works by Lucio Fontana.  Of the 10 pieces that Christie’s auctioned, the ones that achieved more success were  “Concetto Spaziale” (estimate 180-280 thousand euros), a beautiful canvas in which golden is used ironically, but also “Concetto Spaziale, Attese” (estimate 200-300 thousand euros), a wonderful piece that expresses Fontana’s Spatialism, that is not a theory nor poetics of space, but a clear assertion that anything done consciously entails making space.
Among the best performances of the Modern and Contemporary Art auction held by Christie’s, we must cite Giorgio Morandi’s “Natura Morta”, which from an initial estimate included between 250 and 350 thousand euros, sold for 403,400 thousand euros. We should also mention  “Senza Titolo (ExtraMural n°16)” sold for 227,000 euros, “Come un animale” by Mimmo Rotella, which from an estimate of 150-200 thousand euros, achieved 258,500 euros and “Chiesa in Periferia o Cattedrale” by Mario Sironi, which starting from an estimate of 200-300 thousand euros, sold for 252,200 euros. This is a beautiful painting executed by Sironi in the first half of the twenties, in which the artist focuses his attention on the architecture of cathedrals, symbol of the Italian primacy, of the greatness of the Mediterranean culture.