Intesa wins 5 paintings auctioned by Unicredit

Masterpieces by Gerhard Richter, Sam Francis and other masters of contemporary painting from Unicredit to Intesa Sanpaolo , which invested around 15 million euros for five pieces from the collection of the group led by Jean Pierre Mustier, and which intends to exhibit them by the end of the year in its galleries.

    The story is told by Repubblica in its economics pages, referring to how in 2019 Unicredit decided to start the sale of its artistic collection, "to finance the 'social impact bank' activities in ten European markets by developing microcredit and support for the most disadvantaged ". The bank, explains the newspaper, had chosen Christie's as the auctioneer , and the first auction took place on 4 Octoberlast February at the London headquarters of the auction house, which was then followed by two more, one in the British capital and one in Amsterdam, in February, as well as other online sales.

    The five works awarded to Intesa Sanpaolo at the London auction have indeed changed hands at a price of over 15 million, including commissions, explains Repubblica, reporting that the two banks "have not denied the rumors collected". In particular, the most important of the five works the masterpiece of Gerhard Richter's 'Abstraktes Bild', 1984, oil on large canvas that would be sold to the equivalent of EUR 7.7 million at current exchange rates. Richter is considered to be among the most influential living painters in the world. Intesa also bought the 'Erotic Arabesque' acrylic by Californian Sam Francis, dated 1987: it is a work, writes Repubblica, of a similar period and style, which in the past belonged to the Banca di Roma.

    The Roman newspaper explains that the other three purchases by the group led by Carlo Messina would also come from the same trend of contemporary non-figurative art. "Intesa Sanpalo cares so much about its collections - adds the report - that since 2017 it has revalued them in the financial statements, recording its main 3,500 works of art at the market value of 271 million, to which are now added the five new canvases that were of Unicredit. "