At Palazzo Serbelloni, Sotheby’s Milano transforms an auction into a journey through centuries of art and collecting, revealing Italian taste among heterogeneous works and travelers’ stories.
How does the new chapter of the journey into Italian collecting present itself?
In the heart of Milan, at Palazzo Serbelloni, Sotheby’s presents “An Italian Collecting Journey – Chapter II”, an itinerary that combines exhibition and sale. The auction takes place live on March 25 and online until March 26, while the exhibition of the private collection is visible until March 22.
The operation is conceived as a crossing of the figurative and decorative tradition of the peninsula. There are no rigid boundaries between ancient paintings, sculptures, micromosaics, and applied art objects, which interact in a single narrative about the formation of national taste.
The project is ideally inspired by the “Journey to Italy” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who saw in the relationship with objects a way to know oneself. Similarly, the path built in Milan invites reading the works as identity traces, far from any collecting illusion and closer instead to an exercise of knowledge.
Which historical figures emerge among the highlighted lots?
Among the protagonists stands out Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), British ambassador to Naples, collector, and pioneer of volcanological studies. His observations on Vesuvius, illustrated by Pietro Fabris, are considered one of the highest examples of the Sublime’s poetics.
These themes emerge in the catalog in the famous “Campi Phlegraei” (lot 64), a volume that combines science, landscape, and fascination for natural forces. The work testifies to the international gaze turned to the Neapolitan territory in the eighteenth century, in a constant dialogue between erudite research and visual wonder.
Alongside Hamilton, the selection highlights the figure of Giuseppe Beccadelli, prince of Camporeale, diplomat, and enlightened reformer who contributed to the cultural renewal of Bourbon Naples. Central was his role in the concentration of the Farnese collections in the newly established Museo Borbonico, the nucleus of the current National Archaeological Museum.
In Milan, this reformist path is evoked by the biscuit bust from the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea, modeled by Filippo Tagliolini and dated 1781 (lot 66). The work crystallizes in plastic form the climate of renewal that, starting around 1780, invested the capital of the Kingdom of Naples.
What results did the first chapter of this project achieve?
The previous appointment with “An Italian Collecting Journey” confirmed the strong interest of the market. In September 2025, the first chapter more than doubled the initial estimate, reaching a total of 4.1 million euros.
Moreover, the sale recorded a sale rate of 94%, a figure that underscores the coherence of the curatorial project and its ability to intercept the taste of contemporary collectors. The second chapter thus fits into an already consolidated trajectory.
How does the exhibition path traverse Italian techniques and centers?
The selection stands out for a deliberately heterogeneous structure, which crosses centuries, techniques, and categories. As Francesco Morroni, Senior Director Works of Art, Furniture, Ceramics of Sotheby’s Italy, emphasizes, it is not simply a collection of precious objects.
According to Morroni, each piece was chosen because it can tell an essential aspect of the country’s taste, history, and sensitivity. This intertwining of cultural references and deep aesthetic intuitions creates the underlying unity of the collection and makes this second chapter particularly revealing of its spirit.
The journey touches on Roman micromosaics, represented by lot 90, and arrives at the refined workings in Florentine hard stones. However, the path is not limited to the great centers: it continues through delicate artifacts in engraved tortoiseshell from the Neapolitan area, like lot 75.
An additional section enhances the gold and enamel boxes made by important European masters, including Blerzy (lot 79), Le Bastier (lot 86), and Vachette (lot 106). This core highlights how Italian taste has often engaged with production beyond the Alps, in a constant dialogue between commissions and manufactures.
Which symbolic objects tell the taste and lifestyle?
Among the most evocative lots stands out a splendid micromosaic bracelet (lot 87), with the Latin inscription “DVLCIS VITAE“. The expression recalls the semantic root of what will later become the iconic twentieth-century “Dolce Vita”, suggesting a subtle thread between neoclassical taste and modern imagery.
The choice of a jewel as a vehicle for this motto reveals the intertwining of art, lifestyle, and social representation. Overall, the object functions as a synthesis of an idea of pleasure and refinement that crosses Italian culture well beyond its century of production.
The path then moves to Venice, through a selection of lagoon furniture and decorative arts. Compared to other centers, the city emerges for its ability to combine theatricality, color, and technical virtuosity, elements that marked its production between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
That said, the narrative does not remain anchored to the Adriatic: a leap back in time leads to the workshop of the Embriachi, with caskets and objects in carved ivory and bone. These artifacts testify to the fortune of the sumptuous arts between the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
What role do stone works and medieval devotion play in the path?
Alongside objects in precious materials, the collection includes a core of sculptures and stone artifacts. Among these stands out a Carolingian pluteus (lot 2), which documents the spread of an early medieval decorative lexicon often known only through fragments.
Another significant element is a rare medallion in verre églomisé depicting a Crucifixion (lot 3), attributable to fourteenth-century Umbrian devotion. The work combines iconic intensity and technical refinement, positioning itself as a precious testimony of late medieval spirituality.
How are Italian traditions represented in ancient painting?
A section of the auction is dedicated to ancient paintings, called to narrate the traditions, rituals, and visual codes of the country. Three works, in particular, have been declared of cultural interest by the Italian State, confirming their historical and artistic relevance.
The first is the refined “Portrait of a Noblewoman” by Pierre Subleyras (lot 38), which returns the face of aristocratic patronage. The second is the sumptuous “Still Life with Sweets, Tulips, and Roses” by Nicola Massa Recco (lot 69), a triumph of sweets and flowers on a pewter plate.
Completing the trio is an elegant architectural capriccio by Canaletto (lot 47), where scenic invention transfigures views and ruins. Together, these works compose a mosaic of views on Italian living, between social representation, table sensuality, and imaginary construction of urban space.
What vision of Italian identity emerges from this collection?
For Mario Tavella, Chairman Sotheby’s Europe and President of Sotheby’s France, this second chapter is a tribute to the curious and passionate gaze with which Italy has been observed over the centuries. Travelers, patrons, and artists have contributed to building a great mosaic of cultural identity.
Each lot tells a personal trajectory, but overall the collection draws a single narrative on taste, from Bourbon Naples to eighteenth-century Venice, up to medieval Umbrian devotion. In this sense, the Milanese appointment is configured as a significant stage in the broader path of enhancing Italian collecting.
To delve into the historical-artistic context of the protagonists of this story, it is possible to consult the records of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the resources of the Ministry of Culture, and the online catalog of Sotheby’s, which documents in detail each lot for sale.
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
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