Sotheby's Milan Auctions Set New Record for Leoncillo

Sotheby's held its second and final Milan session of 2018 for modern and contemporary art at Palazzo Serbelloni, achieving strong results. The evening sale alone set a new auction record for Leoncillo and, with 85% of 44 lots sold, reached over €11 million, surpassing €12.8 million when combined with the day sale (compared to €7,788,500 in November 2017). The top lot was Giorgio Morandi's 'Natura Morta' from 1923, selling for €2,169,000 against an estimate of €800,000-1,200,000. Leoncillo's 'Grande Mutilazione' (1962) exceeded expectations at €969,000, setting a new record for the artist at Sotheby's, surpassing Christie's previous record of £728,750/€824,117 from October 2017. Jean-Michel Basquiat made his Italian auction debut with 'Untitled (1981)' from the Car series, selling for €549,000. Other notable sales included Lucio Fontana's 'Concetto Spaziale, Attese' (€465,000), Alighiero Boetti's 'Tutto' (€465,000), and works by Alberto Burri, Piero Manzoni, and Michelangelo Pistoletto. Some lots remained unsold, including Cy Twombly's 'Untitled' and works by Marino Marini and Enrico Castellani.