David Bowie and Ettore Sottsass & the Milan-based Memphis group

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Installation view of works by Memphis at the exhibition "Bowie/Collector" at Sotheby's London. Photo ©Sotheby’s. — Installation view of works by Memphis at the exhibition “Bowie/Collector” at Sotheby’s London. Photo ©Sotheby’s.

The David Bowie collectors auction Part 1 of modern and contemporary art has received worldwide attention and fantastic results but at WCN we have been awaiting Part III of the sale which included works by Ettore Sottsass and the Milan-based Memphis group. Sotheby’s created an amazing installation of the works and the sale total was £1.387 million with every lot exceeding the estimate greatly.

Bowie was a voracious collector of the works of eccentric Italian designer Ettore Sottsass and the Milan-based Memphis group. The final session of the sale series will comprise pieces such as the iconic Post-Modernist ‘Casablanca’ Sideboard, from the first Memphis collection of 1981, and the unconventional record player, the RR 126 Radiophonograph, designed in 1965 by the brothers Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni for Brionvega, both of which are definitive pieces of cutting edge Italian design fitting for the most innovative and daring musician of his generation.

Sottsass-Carlton-Room-Divider — Ettore Sottsass, Carlton room divider (designed 1981). Estimate £5,000-£7,000. Photo ©Sotheby’s.
Sold for £52,500

For more information visit Sothebys.

The Auctions:

Part I: Modern & Contemporary Art, Evening Auction, 10 November
Part II: Modern & Contemporary Art, Day Auction, 11 November
Part III: Post-Modernist Design: Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis Group, 11 November