Eyes Wide Open: An Italian Vision

On 11 February at Christie’s, the evening auction Eyes Wide Open: An Italian Vision realised a total of £38,427,400 / $63,020,936 / €46,074,453 establishing 13 artist records, and launching an exceptional week of Post-War & Contemporary Art auctions at Christie’s London. The top price of the evening was paid for Alberto Burri’s Combustine Plastica, which sold for £4,674,500 / $7,666,180 / €5,604,726 (estimate: £600,000-800,000), a world record price for the artist at auction.

Francis Outred, International Director and Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Christie’s Europe: “This evening’s auction was a benchmark moment for ‘Arte Povera’, a movement which has long held a deep academic and artistic importance and which has welcomed increasing international demand over the last 5 years. The rarest and most important works by both well established and less renowned artists drew fierce international bidding, seeing 8 of the top 10 lots sell in excess their high estimate and establishing record prices for 13 artists, including Burri, Fabro, Kounellis, Merz and Pistoletto. Having presented this collection on a global platform, it is particularly pleasing to see so many artists rise up to their true market potential, especially those whose work is not so regularly seen at international Evening auctions, including Giulio Paolini, Fausto Melotti and Francesco Lo Savio, whose work quadrupled its estimate”.