MILAN.- Sotheby’s Milan devotes two days to the Contemporary art sales, like in Paris, London and New York. The first session, the Evening Sale takes place on the 20th of May, while the Day Sale will be held on the 21st of May. One of the most important works on sale is an oil on canvas by Giorgio de Chirico executed in 1928 titled Temple et Foret dans la chambre.

This work, already in Leonce Rosenberg’s collection belongs to the series of works that the artist dedicated to furniture and archaeological temples assembled in a room “with no sense of direction”. These works were in fact executed when de Chirico first moved to Paris. The de Chirico’s style prone to depict furniture and classical objects within an unusual context was also due to his Parisian encounter with Surrealism . This oil on canvas which measures cm 130x97 and boasts quite an exhibition history- Italian as well as international- has an estimate of euros 600.000 – 800.000.

With an estimate of 120.000- 150.000 euros there is also a work dated 1929 by Alberto Savinio, Giorgio de Chirico’s brother , titled Dieux de la mer.

One of the most outstanding works in auction is Giorgio Morandi’s Still Life, executed in 1940 and similar to a work sold at Sotheby’s London twenty years ago which belonged to the Morat Collection, this work with a mainly horizontal composition belonged to the Scialoja Collection (Rome) exhibited in the 1965’s Quadriennale of Rome, it was also showed in a famous 1989 Venice exhibition “signed” by Pontus Hulten and Germano Celant. The estimate for this work is euros 900.000 – 1.200.000.

Dated 1936, Spring, a work by Anselmo Bucci is an intense and scenic composition with an estimate of 20.000- 30.000 euros.

There is a rather astonishing selection of works of the Fifties among which there’s a Magnelli dated 1950, valued 90.000/120.000 €, followed by two canvases executed in 1951, one by Vasarely Gordium Negatif (estimate. 80/100.000 €) and one by Georges Mathieu, a work that was already in the collection of Luciano Pistoi, and it is estimated 150/200.000 €.

From the Diary of Brazil: Uneasy space by Emilio Vedova is a rather large canvas (cm 144x190) executed in 1954 for the Venice Biennale of that year. Estimate oscillates between 300.000 to 400.000 €.

The Piero Manzoni’s Achrome (100x80, val. 350/450.000 €) executed in 1959 comes from an European collection, and was exhibited in Manzoni’s One Man Show in Amsterdam that was held in 1969; the work is published in the 1975 Celant ‘s catalogue.

The spirit of the city of Rome of the early Sixties is perfectly transposed in Mimmo Rotella’s Immortale Mostro CALTIKI, executed in 1961 which comes from New York and is esteemed 120.000. 180.000 €.

From an American collection there’s also Untitled. Beebe's tree –a magnificent enamel on canvas, cm 200X200, estimated 120/180.000 €, executed in 1963. Among 180.000 and 250.000 € is the estimate for another monochrome by Schifano, titled Stanza dei Disegni, dated 1963.

Arte Povera and Informale: a work dated 1978 by Boetti Alternating from one to one hundred and vice versa esteemed 100.000/150.000 € and Superficie Bianca a 1971 canvas by Enrico Castellani cm 142x215, valued 230/300.000 €.

Significant for quality - the small group of sculptures on sale among which, a slender and long work by Melotti, The Chair of Thespis, 100.000/ 150.000 €; two Consagra of the Sixties, Two figures (val. 40.000/60.000 €) and Interview (val. 50.000/60.000 €), that both come from the Usa; 100.000/ 150.000 € is the estimate for a 1959 Cementarmato lamiera by Giuseppe Uncini .