La Maison Bleue arrives in Italy!

La Maison Bleue is stepping up its sales in places where collectors meet: after Beirut and the Hôtel Royal Monceau-Raffles Paris last month, the MILLON hammer will be ringing in Lombardy

27 September: 
First MILLON sale in Italy

For several years now, MILLON has been welcoming Italians to its appraisal offices.

But it was during a meeting with the owners of a Lombardy collection that the idea of holding a sale at their property in Cremona was born, to enable visitors to admire the lots directly in these prestigious interiors.

"The long-standing presence of our appraisal offices in Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Luxembourg has created relationships of trust with collectors, buyers and sellers in each of these countries. Our work is only as good as our ability to sell where the market demands. In this case, in Lombardy! Alexandre MILLON

Expert Vittorio Preda discovered and authenticated this rare collection of paintings and furniture dating from the 15th to the 19th century, preciously displayed in this Italian interior since the 1960s. Art lovers, embodying the elegance and 'savoir-vivre' of Italian high society, the Cremonese couple built up their collection over more than thirty years with great care and discretion.

Famous names in Italy and Europe

The heart of the sale is made up of old paintings by artists from Northern to Southern Italy, but also by painters from Northern Europe. Some key lots have not been seen for decades, and some are known only through black and white reproductions (lots 21,22,30,58,69,106).

• Of particular note was a previously unseen work by a rare painter, Angiolillo Arcuccio (active in Naples from 1464 to 1492), an imposing and remarkable polyptych on a gold ground (€60,000 / €80,000).

Sold for €220,000

• Salvator Rosa (Naples, 1615 - Rome, 1673) is superbly represented by a Bacchanal of princely dimensions and provenance;

Sold for €46,000

• Sofonisba's sister Europa Anguissola (Cremona, 1548-1549 circa - ante 18 gennaio 1579) is on her home turf here with an unpublished and rare virile portrait.

Sold for €20,000

• Another Neapolitan, Battistello Caracciolo (Naples, 1578 - 1635), painted a magnificent Salome, known as the "Pelzer Salome".

Sold for €110,000

Nordic Caravaggism is evoked byCard Players by Gerard Seghers (Antwerp, 1591 - 1651) , which sold for €29,000.

Sales information

Click HERE to find out the results of the sale!

The magnificent halls that have housed these works and the other lots included in the sale for decades are exceptionally opening their doors to connoisseurs by appointment only from 23 to 26 September, ahead of the sale, which will take place at the Hotel Continental in Cremona.

"This is an opportunity to celebrate Cremona, an ancient city rich in works of art, which was the birthplace of Antonio Stradivari (17th-18th centuries) and Claudio Monteverdi (16th-17th centuries). It is also the birthplace of Sofonisba Anguissola (16th-17th century), one of the most famous female painters in history" Vittorio PREDA - Expert in antique paintings