Artcurial's Design Italien Auction in Paris Sees Records for Radical Design

Artcurial's Design Italien auction in Paris achieved strong results for Italian design masters, particularly Gio Ponti, while also setting records for radical design pieces. A commode by Gio Ponti and Pietro Chiesa from the mid-1930s, produced by Fontana Arte, sold for nearly €210,000. Ponti seating also performed well: a pair of armchairs from 1949 fetched €88,000, Triennale chairs from 1951 reached €87,000, and Garzanti chairs from 1953 sold for about €68,000. His 1955 ceiling lamp by Arredoluce went for over €55,000. However, the standout lots were from radical design: Ettore Sottsass's Festone lamp from 1956, exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in 2021 and also made by Arredoluce, achieved €118,000, while Gianni Pettena's Rumble sofa set an artist record at €66,912. About fifty lots in the auction came from a single collection, that of Vincent Belhache (1967-2021), a Parisian intellectual and collector who lived in Montmartre. Belhache had amassed works directly from Italian masters like Andrea Branzi, Ugo Marano, Ettore Sottsass, and Gianni Pettena, as well as through Galerie Mercier. The Rumble sofa, designed in 1967 for Pettena's own apartment in Florence, is a provocative 2.5-meter-square ring with five modular cushions. The auction was led by Emilie Volka, director of Artcurial's Milan office, which celebrated its tenth anniversary.