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OUT FROM STORAGE

A successful Romano sale in Florence proves there are exceptions to recessionary rules ...

From ECONOMIST.COM

Sotheby’s recent four-day sale of the Salvatore and Francesco Romano collection in Florence contained more than 1,800 lots. International interest in the auction was keen, even though there was not a single masterpiece among the antique statues, Old Master paintings, textiles, pieces of furniture or objets d’art. Many foreign dealers and collectors who had come to Italy for the sumptuous and lively Biennale dell’Antiquarioto (which ended on October 4th) crossed the Arno to the Palazzo Magnani Ferroni for a look even before the official public viewing began. (The auction, which went from October 12th to the 16th, was timed with the Biennale in mind.)

Once the sale started, as many as 22 employees worked the phones, taking bids from Italy and elsewhere in Europe, America and Russia. The first-floor terrace of the palace was tented for the event, and rows of folding chairs were occupied by a changing cast of paddle wielders, many of them dealers. Others loitered in the vast, art-filled, adjoining rooms waiting for their chosen lots to come up. By its end, the sale made more than €10.5m ($15.5m), exceeding the low estimate by a little more than €72,000. Sotheby’s says it is delighted and so are the consigners.

Though hardly breathtaking, the Romano outcome runs counter to the often repeated observation that in this difficult art market only works of outstandingly high quality sell. Why was this sale an exception? In a word: freshness. It was very rare to offer so many objects that were new to dealers and collectors. Most of the lots in the Romano sale had not been on the market for half a century or more. Another reason for the sale's success involves a story in two parts: the first has to do with family history; the second with Sotheby's navigation of the sometimes turbulent seas of Italy's art export laws.

Salvatore Romano (1875-1955), born near Naples, became an influential antique dealer and collector in Florence. After the second world war he gave the city some 70 works of art, which now form the core of the Santo Spirito Museum. He lived in a hotel, and bought the first floor of the handsome Magnani Ferroni to use as a warehouse for his stock. His only child, Francesco, continued in the trade but appears to have left the warehouse stock largely untouched. Francesco died in 1981, and his nine children had no need to sell or even remove items for their personal use. Almost everything left by Salvatore remained locked away, gathering dust as much had already been for decades. But those children went on to have 36 children of their own; the growing complexity of future distribution of Salvatore’s property perhaps encouraged the family to have this sale. Three years ago they began working with Filippo Lotti, the managing director of Sotheby’s in Italy.

Inventory was taken and estimates were agreed to. But then came the credit crunch. “Altogether we decided to go on,” Mr Lotti said before the sale. “The art market in Italy needs this...Dealers can renew their stock; collectors can buy work untouched for 70 years.” But for the market to react energetically, export licenses were necessary for the most internationally attractive lots.

Since 1939 Italian law has required that all antiques and works of art more than 50 years old must have an export certificate (notifica) before they can leave the country. Relatively minor works often get a notifica easily, so sales often take place before one is requested. However, if an item might be judged of national importance and therefore denied a certificate, a notifica is sought before it is sold. A denied notifica can have a big effect on prices because it restricts bidding to nationals. Mr Lotti explained that he could have doubled the price of a big painting by Gianbattista Tieplolo that he recently sold in Milan if it had an export license.

After the Romano catalogue was prepared but before it was printed, Sotheby's asked for export licenses for 50 lots. The Italian cultural patrimony and export authorities were invited to the palace to view everything that was up for auction. When the sale started, they had given licenses to 44 works, among them a powerful early-18th century white marble carving of Neptune by Francesco Maria Schiaffino (pictured top), which sold for €228,750, just above the low estimate. The very top lot, a Roman grey and white column from the 6th century, sold for €276,750—nearly three times the low estimate. In this enormous Italian sale, fresh works with an export license made for a winning combination.

Picture credit: Sotheby's

(Art.view appears each week on Economist.com.)