di Guido Wannenes
For those of us who carry out our profession, “vocation” – our symbolic universe of reference – can only be art and everything that, thanks to it, we might meet, experience and breathe. I had proof of this during the dinner given in honour of Jeff Koons that was held in the Salone dei Cinquecento, the prelude to the exhibition Jeff Koons in Florence, created, much-desired and supported by Fabrizio Moretti, an antique dealer in the places to be, that is, Florence, London and New York. I have proof of this every single time I find myself in front of a work of art that still manages to astonish me, to fascinate me and to move me and so prove to me that the path I undertook fifteen years ago was not merely the best for me to choose but was the only one I would find that would suit me to my very being.
And so astonishment, fascino and emotion are precisely those sentiments felt standing before the splendid Vocation of Saints Peter and Andrew by Luca Giordano, a unique work not only on account of its executive quality but also due to its museum-like dimensions making it one of the vastest compositions by the artist that has ever appeared on the market (240 x 379 cm), as told in the opening pages of our magazine by Riccardo Lattuada.
Further examples of art are represented by the genius of Giotto in an exhibition at Milan’s Royal Palace, the largest retrospective dedicated by the Guggenheim Museum in New York to Alberto Burri and Vogue 100: A Century of Style, without any shadow of doubt the most glamorous exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London during the first half of 2016. Alessandro Secciani continues to carry out an attentive and highly scrupulous analysis of the recession of the Chinese economy and its potential repercussions in the art market that might nevertheless be turned into great opportunities if we were all to follow the teachings – as contemporary as ever – of the Baron Rothschild. Luca Violo, on the other hand, introduces us to two main players of Italian culture, Christian Greco and Michele Coppola, Director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin and Director of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Cultural Heritage, respectfully.
The first semester of 2015 recorded an excellent performance in the Department headed by Tommaso Teardo that achieved a total of 1,040,496 euro in the auction in May. This pushed the sector of Silver, Ivories, Icons and Russian Objets d’Art up to the top position in the Italian and international markets. There were excellent results too for Watches, Clocks and Design that, in two special catalogues, ably satisfied to the full the demands of a market that was both knowledgeable as well as highly sophisticated.
As always, along with Roberta Gambaro we have enjoyed the privilege of organising Vintage for Children, a charity in favour of Zambia 2000 that was further enhanced this year by the participation of Stefano Conticelli, a maestro of style possessing an unmistakeable vocation for fine taste and elegance.
The previews present a wide selection of quality pieces of art: from the genius of Carl Fabergé to the group of Ganymede and the Eagle from the Manufactory of Ginori at Doccia, from the furnishings of a residence in Lombardy to the marvels of Van Cleef & Arpels, from the Naples of the Baroque to the Naples of the Nineteenth century, right up to and including works by Ettore Colla and Ico Parisi, masters of twentieth-century Italian design.Carpets and rugs are making a comeback with an auction curated by David Sorgato who will be presenting, among other things, two rare Aubusson bizarres that constitute an ideal starting point for getting to know the history behind these very particular textiles that responded to the strong “vocation” for tastes for the Orient that had spread through France towards the end of the Seventeenth century and that not even Louis XIV could hinder and so confirming, years before it would be uttered, that famous phrase by Henrik Johan Ibsen: “Vocation is a fast stream that we cannot either repel, bar or force. There will always be a way through towards the ocean.”
Veduta di scorcio di Palazzo Vecchio a Firenze con in primo piano la scultura in acciaio inox cromata oro Pluto and Proserpina (2010–2013) di Jeff Koons