ALTOBELLI and MOLINS - Lot 31

Important collection of 19th and 20th century photographs tracing the history of photography

Sale in aid of the Institut Pasteur.

Public exhibition at Hôtel Drouot

- Thursday September 19, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m,

- Friday 20 from 11 am to 6 pm,

- Saturday 21 from 11 am to 6 pm,

- Sunday 22nd from 11 am to 6 pm

- and the morning of the sale from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Expert: Mr. Serge Plantureux - serge@plantureux.it

A few words about this collection

The history of this collection is unknown to us. For us, it began with a chance discovery, during a routine estate inventory meeting; that of a man about whom we know nothing except that he was at one point in his life an antique dealer.

In the Porte Dauphine district, this opaque, cluttered apartment gradually revealed its contents to us, revealing what we're all looking for: abundance and taste. Here, almost 800 paintings and some 20,000 sheets of paper (drawings, prints, photos) accumulated, sometimes anarchically.

We know almost nothing about this unmapped collection, a collector unknown to the leading experts. What emerges from this heap is the character of a solitary man, an art history buff, a tireless defender of the Artist, whether painter, draughtsman, sculptor or photographer. We would like to understand, to know more, to interpret what drove this man to accumulate, often without exhibiting them, so many paintings and drawings. We can only speculate.

The dispersal of this collection over nearly seven sales reflects this quest and mystery. They give us a shadowy view of this man with a passion for art and discovery. It also reveals that this aggregation, the quest of a lifetime, was not in vain: his entire collection, now revealed, will be sold for the benefit of the Institut Pasteur.

Romain Nouel

Auctioneer