MILAN.- Sotheby's announces the sale of Claudia Gian Ferrari's Contemporary and Modern Art Collection which will be held at Palazzo Broggi on 12th April 2011.

Just one year after her untimely passing, in compliance with her will, artworks from her own home and from her gallery will be sold at auction at Sotheby's Milan. These events will fulfill Claudia's desire - as her sisters Grazia and Paola tell us- to have her collection sold at two separate auctions, one including mostly Italian paintings of the 20th Century and the other, more descriptive of her far-seeing activity, devoted to contemporary art. Sotheby's will take care of the contemporary part of the Collection.

Claudia Gian Ferrari, enlightened art historian, dealer and Milanese patron, was a well-recognized and highly appreciated figure to whom the Italian and international art world made reference.

Continuing her father's work in the running of the famous gallery, established by Ettore Gian Ferrari in 1936, Claudia was engaged with the consecrated Italian avant-garde groups of the first half of the 20th Century, while developing a close and steady relationship with the quoting her from an interview recently published in a FAI book (Capolavori del Novecento Italiano, Milano, 2006): "The most important thing for an art dealer is learning how to look."

Two of the most fascinating Italian institutions, Villa Necchi Campiglio ­ a house-museum in Milan - and the Maxxi- the Contemporary Art museum in Rome - are now the custodians of Claudia's two souls (she was born under Gemini) ­ the modern and the contemporary.

Claudia's donations also "enriched" MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome- ,MART- Contemporary and Modern Art Museum in Rovereto- and Museo della Moda in Milan. We would also like to remember Claudia's bequest of her library and her art gallery's archives to the newly opened Museo del Novecento in Milan­ a precious mine for scholars and researchers- evidence of her long activity as an art critic and historian. "Even nowadays- in Claudia's recent words- studying and writing about a painting is what gratifies me most."

On April 12th Sotheby's Milan will have the privilege of holding the auction of the collection that mainly focuses on the art dealer's interests and choices in Contemporary art.

Sotheby's Milan's April catalogue is an interesting overview of the artistic intercourse between her two souls. It offers, in fact, a section devoted to her longstanding artists; works from the beloved Sironi (several lots, including Urban landscape from the Twenties estimated at 60-80,000 euro) to Wildt and Martini (Farmers' dance, polychrome earthenware, estimated at 80-100,000 euro) from Pirandello (Nude from 1936-38, estimated at 30-40,000 euro) to de Pisis (Still life with Japanese fan from 1941, estimated at 30-40,000 euro). Historic names mixed with a rich selection of super contemporary artworks.

The 170 lots in the April Milan catalogue represent the summa of her expert and foreseeing eye, with special attention to the items from the 1990's to 2000. Among the artists included in this sale Airò, Borghi, Cecchini, Della Vedova, Marisaldi, Migliora, Serse, Manzelli, Favelli should be mentioned.

Many of these contemporary Italian artists included in the catalogue have never been offered at auction before. Inside this collection a small group of pieces is devoted to her close friend Luigi Ontani.

We can mention here Il ricordo di Martini e Pirandellesca estimated at15/20,000 euro each, followed by Claudio Parmiggiani’s Senza titolo, a chalk and metal saw 1974, estimated at 30- 40,000 euro. Moreover, many international Contemporary artists, ranging Kiki Smith (Ophelia, bronze, 2002, estimated at 15-20,000 euro) to Tracy Emin, from Shirin Neshat Louise Bourgeois, from Ofili to Murakami (1997, estimated at 30-40,000 euro) from Anish Kapoor to Plensa (Waves Dust, blown glass, cloth and wire, 2000, estimated at 8-12,000 euro).

In 1995, to the preface of "La galleria Gian Ferrari" Claudia wrote: "There are people who lived their lives with such endeavour, such enthusiasm, such love, who left such a deep trace of enthusiasm, of love that they evolved from ordinary people into protagonists. It would be selfish not to hand down to others, to posterity, their extraordinary human, private and, above all, public experience".