MILAN.- This year’s second appointment with Modern and Contemporary art at Sotheby's Milan follows the April sale which achieved the Italian record for a 1967 Concetto Spaziale by Lucio Fontana (€ 2,409,000).

The Milan Evening sale will feature around 40 lots, led by an historical work by Afro.

Exhibited in 1955 at the Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York, known for its promotion of the Italian Arte Informale on the international market, La persiana 2 is a 1954 painting from the artist’s most creative New York years. The work was showcased at Palazzo Reale, Milan, in 1992 and has an estimate of € 180.000 - 250.000.

From a Roman private collection are two works by Alberto Burri: Sportello, 1955 (est. € 100,000 - 150,000) and a 1961 Combustione (est. € 200.000 - 300.000).

Next, Burri’s Bianco Plastica (est. € 500.00 - 700.000) is unique in size and subject when compared to other works from the same period. Bianco Plastica, executed in 1968, embodies a mature example of the celebrated Plastiche series by the artist from Città di Castello.

Pop Art Romana is well represented by Mario Schifano’s Particolare di Oasi, dated 1968 (est. € 100.000 - 150.000) and by the masterwork of Franco Angeli: La Stanza delle Ideologie, rich of symbols taken from the street (est. € 50.000 – 70.000).

From the same period, La Contestazione is a magnificent brass sculpture by Melotti, shown in 1972 at Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Turin (est. € 80.000 – 120.000).

Another Melotti, from a private collection in Madrid, is La Danza della Sposa, a 1979 brass work, rich in poetic significance, which was exhibited in Venice at Museo Fortuny, as well as in Lugano, Bruxelles and Madrid (est. € 150.000 – 200.000).

Among the group of sculptures offered at auction, sits Grande Mutilazione, one of the greatest ceramic example of Leoncillo’s production (h. 130 cm; est. € 400.000 - 500.000), similar to the one recently sold in London for more than £ 720.000.

Leoncillo is one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. In the '50s he rejected Realism and Figurative art to embrace Abstraction and an Informal style, which are exemplified in our sculpture.

The artwork, dated 1962, has a prominent pedigree: twice exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the 1966 III Exposition Internationale de sculpture contemporaine at Musée Rodin, Paris, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome in 1979, Ferrara and Spoleto in 1983 and Verona in 1985.

The Pistoletto and the Boetti in the upcoming November sale are both dated 1989: Pittrice Rossa Con Pantaloni Scuri (depicting Armona, Pistoletto’s daughter) by Pistoletto, is a mirror valued € 250,000 - 350,000 and Alternandosi e Dividendosi (Positivo-Negativo) by Alighiero Boetti is estimated € 280.000 - 350.000.

Another artist belonging to the Arte Povera group is Jannis Kounellis, with Senza Titolo (5) of 1959 (est. € 300.000 - 400.000) formerly coming from the famous Milanese collections Malabarba and Gian Ferrari. The work dates back to 1959, close to Kounellis’s first solo exhibition at the innovative La Tartaruga Gallery in Rome, which kick started his brilliant career.

Among the Lucio Fontana works selected for this sale, we find the 1958 aniline, Concetto Spaziale, Forma (est. € 250,000 - 350,000), from the collection of Giovanna Bonino in Buenos Aires, a place of great significance for Fontana because it was here that he signed the famous Manifesto Blanco. This Concetto Spaziale was shown in 1959 at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires.

Acquired by the current owner’s family from the artist himself in the mid-60s, Concetto Spaziale, Attese (est. € 400,000 - 500,000) is a single taglio (cut) of 1963-1964, realized by Lucio Fontana during the last period of his life. The taglio is positioned at the center of a very intense green canvas and is a perfectly preserved wound.

Each of the two large Castellani, almost square, Superficie Rossa (1985) and Superficie Blu (1995) carry an estimate of € 250,000 - 350,000.

In this brief summary, we cannot bypass the figurative works of art presented in the sale, such as the large painting by Renato Guttuso (to whom the GAM in Turin dedicated a solo show early this year) Tre Operai e Una Prostituta estimated € 80.000 - 120.000.

The catalogue also displays two Giorgio Morandi still lifes, one of 1959, from an important private collection (est. € 600,000 - 800,000) and the other one of 1923, also from a private collection, which is estimated at € 800,000 - 1,200,000.

There will also be a private international collection on offer, with works by Alighiero Boetti (Tutto, 1987, est. € 400.000 – 600.000), as well as a 1961 Lucio Fontana gold oil painting, Concetto Spaziale. This is a key color in art history and in high demand today (as evidence by the recent The Midas Touch sale in London); its estimate is € 800.000 – 1.200.000.

For the first time on the Italian market, Sotheby’s will offer a work by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Untitled, dated 1981 which comes from the same collection as above made up of collage and mixed media, is from the Car series, and was-formerly exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lausanne (est. € 300.000 – 400.000).

Among the international artists of this autumn sale, we find Twombly (included with Untitled, coloured pastels on paper from 1961, est. € 200,000 - 300,000) Georges Mathieu, Alex Katz (with a 1999 large canvas, Harbor 10, est. € 200,000 - 300,000), Peter Alley, Julian Opie, Matta and Hans Hartung.