Thoroughly modern Italy
The worlds of fashion and art have long overlapped: leading designers keep upping their art holdings while collectors don Fendi and Armani togs. But there's a new frisson to the pairing. Italy, home to many of those designers, commands a central position on the global art shopping circuit.
The latest sign of this is Christie's launch of a new Italian headquarters in the fashion-central city of Milan, steps away from La Scala. Headingthe office is Clarice Pecori-Giraldi, 44, a dyed-in-the-wool, Prada-bag-toting fashionista. Most recently, she was in charge of communications for Prada and Ferragamo, though she began her professional life as a modern art expert in Christie's previous Milan office - where scrutinising works by De Chirico, Paladino and Fontana was a daily task.
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"Fashion is a creative endeavour just like art," she says.
But there are deeper links. "Approximately 40 per cent of the private buyers at the top are in the fashion world in some manner," says Mariolina Bassetti, Christie's director and head of modern and contemporary art in Italy, who is based in Rome. So Fendi, Prada, Valentino and Etro family members - as well as those from the vast cotton, silk, wool and leather industries - are some of the names peppering their contacts books. "It's the new way to invest," she says. "In the 1960s, collectors came from the world of cinema but now in Italy there's been a shift to fashion."
Both Bassetti and Pecori-Giraldi substantiate the importance of Milan for collectors by pointing to Christie's sale last year of Arturo Martini's 1941 marble sculpture, "Woman Swimming Under Water", for a stupendous ￡1.6m - the most expensive work of modern art sold at auction in Italy.
The auction house has zeroed in on two floors of an arcaded 15th-century building that once served as a Medici family bank. Its new saleroom is in the Palazzo Clerici ballroom while exhibitions and receptions will take place in the Tiepolo Gallery, which boasts allegorical frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo in 1740.
This kind of focus in Milan is not new. Sotheby's staked out a presence in the city more than 30 years ago when it held its first regular sale at the Palazzo Broggi; Christie's first sale was in 1993. But it is a sign that the contemporary Italian art market is booming.
As London draws a more international crowd of buyers, the auction houses have been holding theirbig modern Italian art sales there. Last October, Sotheby's London sales of Italian art generated ￡9.7m, nearly double the amount of five years ago.
A glance at the catalogues for Sotheby's and Christie's 20th-century Italian art sales in London on October 16 - cleverly coinciding with the Frieze Art Fair, when lots of European and American collectors are in town - shows works from Giorgio Morandi and Lucio Fontana, who are among the most collectable names.
Another market shift has been taking place: it is no longer only Italians who are clamouring for Italian art. Olivier Camu, Christie's international director and co-head of impressionist and modern art, London, who is leading the sale, says: "At our first modern Italian art sale in 2000, 55 per cent of the work went back to Italy." Last year, that figure slumped to 40 per cent, with Americans, British and Asians taking home the bulk of the lots.
Prices are driving many collectors to Italian painting. "Much of 20th-century Italian art is undervalued and a relative bargain compared with American modern masters," says Camu. For example, he says, you can pick up a major Alberto Burri for a fraction of the cost of a Robert Rauschenberg. The top price for Rauschenberg stands at $40m while a Burri can sell around the comparatively low $1m mark.
The 1953 Burri that is on the block at Christie's, composed of burlap sacks cobbled together with varnish and paint on canvas, is forecast to fetch ￡450,000-￡650,000.
Sotheby's is headlining Fontana in its sale. His 1961 "Concetto Spaziale, Attese" consists of four severe slashes on a white-painted canvas and carries an estimate of ￡350,000-￡450,000. "Five years ago, this picture would have gone for, tops, ￡200,000," says Isabelle Paagman, Sotheby's London-based specialist. Even the market for Fontana's terracottas, once considered marginal, has expanded. "Because of the jump in value for Fontana and other artists, we're seeing more clients from the financial world demanding Italian paintings," says Paagman. She has seen the number of American buyers and under bidders jump twice in number within the past three years.
Twentieth-century Italian art is also receiving a boost in the museum world. Manhattan's Guggenheim is hosting the first big exhibition devoted to Lucio Fontana in almost 30 years, after it debuted at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice during the summer. And architect Zaha Hadid is turning her hand to the MAXXI: National Centre of Contemporary Arts, scheduled to open in Rome in 2008.
意大利艺术品市场开始火了？
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装与艺术的世界一直是重叠交错的：知名设计师不断增加自己的艺术品收藏，而收藏家们则穿着芬迪(Fendi)和阿玛尼(Armani)的服装。现在这两个世界之间又擦出新的火花。作为时尚设计师的云集之地，意大利目前正希望在全球艺术品交易界占据一个中心地位。
收藏家多来自时装界
表明这一点的最新迹象是，佳士得(Christie’s)在时尚之都米兰成立了意大利新总部，距离斯卡拉歌剧院(La Scala)仅数步之遥。这里的负责人是现年44岁的克拉丽斯?佩科里-吉尔拉迪(Clarice Pecori-Giraldi)，一个拿着普拉达(Prada)手袋、彻头彻尾的时尚人。在此之前，她在Prada和Ferragamo负责公关，不过她的职业生涯却起步于佳士得：她曾担任佳士得米兰办事处的现代艺术品专家，在那里，她的日常工作是详细检查德?基里科(De Chirico)、帕拉迪诺(Paladino)和丰塔纳(Fontana)等人的作品。
她表示：“时装和艺术品一样具有创造性。”但它们之间还有更深层次的联系。佳士得董事兼意大利现当代艺术品主管、驻罗马工作的马里奥利娜?巴塞蒂(Mariolina Bassetti)称：“就某种程度来说，大约40%的高端私人买家来自时装界。”因此，芬迪、普拉达、华伦天奴(Valentino)和艾纯(Etro)的家族成员，以及来自更广泛的棉、丝、羊毛和皮革产业界的人，在他们的通讯录上随处可见。“这是一种新的投资方式，”她表示。“上世纪60年代，收藏家来自电影界，但如今在意大利，风头转向了时装界。”
巴塞蒂和佩科里-吉尔拉迪均证实了米兰对收藏家的重要性，她们指出，佳士得去年拍卖了阿图罗?马丁尼(Arturo Martini)于1941年创作的大理石雕塑《水下游泳的女人》(Woman Swimming Under Water)，成交价高达160万英镑，创下意大利现代艺术作品拍卖史上的最高成交价。
这家拍卖行的办公室位于一幢15世纪拱形建筑物的两层楼内，这里曾经是梅迪奇(Medici)家族银行的旧址。新的拍卖室曾是帕拉佐?克莱里奇(Palazzo Clerici)舞厅，而展览厅和接待处将放在提埃坡罗美术馆(Tiepolo Gallery)里――乔瓦尼?巴蒂斯塔?提埃坡罗(Giovanni Battista Tiepolo)在1740年创作的讽喻壁画是这里的骄傲。
意大利现当代艺术品热销
这种对米兰的重视并不新鲜。苏富比(Sotheby’s) 30多年前就已来到米兰，当时，该拍卖行首次在帕拉佐?布罗吉(Palazzo Broggi)定期举办拍卖会；佳士得的首场拍卖会是在1993年举办的。但这一迹象表明，当代意大利艺术品市场正在红火发展。由于伦敦吸引着国际化程度更高的买家，这些拍卖行一直在那里举办大型现代意大利艺术品拍卖。去年10月，苏富比在伦敦举行意大利艺术品拍卖会，成交额为970万英镑，几乎为5年前的一倍。
苏富比和佳士得于10月16日在伦敦举行了20世纪意大利艺术品拍卖会。粗略浏览其拍卖品目录，就看到了乔治?莫兰迪(Giorgio Morandi)和卢乔?丰塔纳(Lucio Fontana)的作品――他们都属于最值得收藏的艺术家。拍卖会聪明地安排在弗雷兹艺术博览会(Frieze Art Fair)的举办期间，当时大量的欧美收藏家云集于此。
另一个已经发生的市场变化是：为意大利艺术品摇旗呐喊的，不再只是意大利人。此次拍卖会的负责人、佳士得国际董事兼伦敦办事处印象派及现代艺术联席主管奥利维尔?卡米(Olivier Camu)表示：“在我们2000年的首场现代意大利艺术品拍卖会上，55%的作品流回了意大利。”去年，这一数字下降至40%，而将大部分艺术品带回家的是美国人、英国人和亚洲人。
被推崇的意大利绘画
价格因素正在将许多收藏者推向意大利绘画。卡米表示：“许多20世纪意大利艺术品的价格被低估，与美国现代大师的作品相比，成了便宜货。”他举例称，一件阿贝托?布利(Alberto Burri)的大作，价格只是罗伯特?劳申伯格(Robert Rauschenberg)作品价格的零头。劳申伯格的作品最高价格达到4000万美元，而布利的作品价格在100万美元左右。
佳士得正在出售的布利在1953年的作品，预计售价为45万英镑至65万英镑。这件作品由麻袋做成，杂乱地涂着清漆和油漆。
苏富比在拍卖中主打丰塔纳的作品。他在1961年创作的“Concetto Spaziale, Attese”，在刷白的帆布上画着4条剧烈的斜线，其估价为35万至45万英镑。苏富比驻伦敦的专家伊莎贝尔?帕埃格曼(Isabelle Paagman)表示：“5年前，最多20万英镑就可以将这幅画买走。”甚至是丰塔纳的陶器作品，曾被认为没什么市场，现在也很受欢迎。帕埃格曼表示：“因为丰塔纳和其他艺术家的价值迅速增长，我们看到更多金融界的客户渴望购买意大利绘画。”她已看到，在过去3年中，美国买家和竞标者的数量都增加了两倍。
二十世纪的意大利艺术品也受到各博物馆的推崇。今年夏天，威尼斯的佩姬古根海姆美术馆(Peggy Guggenheim Collection)率先举办了卢乔?丰塔纳作品展览，随后，曼哈顿的古根海姆博物馆将举办近30年来规模最大的丰塔纳作品专场展览。而建筑师扎哈?哈迪德(Zaha Hadid)将担纲设计位于罗马的MAXXI: 国家当代艺术中心(National Centre of Contemporary Arts)。该中心计划于2008年竣工启用。
