Sotheby’s Milan, 7 July 2022: Marie-Louise Sciò [@marielouisescio], CEO and Creative Director of the Pellicano Hotels Group and founder of lifestyle website ISSIMO, has collaborated with Sotheby’s Milan to co-curate a sale of Contemporary Art. In an exercise of fantasy collecting, Marie-Louise has handpicked a personal edit of artworks by some of the most established to the emerging generation of artists working today. Together, her selection will form part of this season’s ‘Contemporary Curated’ auction, which carries the highest pre-sale estimate for a sale of this kind staged in Italy to date. Open for bidding from 8-14 July, there will also be the opportunity to see the highlights in an exhibition running concurrently from 12-14 July in Sotheby’s Milan galleries [Corso Venezia, 16, 20121 Milano].
Described by Vogue as “the ideal la dolce vita escape”, the Pellicano Hotels Group comprises three hotels: Il Pellicano, La Posta Vecchia and Mezzatorre. Regular guests have included Italian dynasties, Hollywood actors, socialites, and photographers Slim Aarons and Juergen Teller, both of whom have shot all three locations respectively. Marie-Louise takes pride in curating every detail - from music playlists to menu details and even colour-matching the pink parasols to the exact colour of the Ischia sunset at Mezzatorre.
From a young age, Marie-Louise has always had an innate interest in art. Living in Rome, the daughter of an Italian businessman and an American artist, Marie-Louise describes her upbringing as between two parallel cultures.
It was very influential having an American mother living in Rome. On a weekend, we would explore the city’s historical sites, which so many Romans take for granted when they live among these beautiful things, and then we’d travel to the States where I would see incredible contemporary art. It was super exciting and a whole new world opened up for me - it created a dialogue in my mind between past and present.
For Marie-Louise, the bridging of past with present can create a sense of timelessness, and it is this which she strives for across the Pellicano Hotels Group and ISSIMO, described as “the digital extension of the Pellicano” where people can discover Italian excellence – they can read about beautiful destinations and shop from artisans who define Italian culture, including food, fashion, design and more. At La Posta Vecchia, for instance, Roman artefacts from the collection of John Paul Getty (who previously owned the Renaissance villa) are exhibited besides contemporary furnishings, creating a place of visual contradictions.
This is how Marie-Louise has approached the ‘Contemporary Curated’ auction, by selecting artworks that not only elicited an emotional reaction, but which encouraged her to discover more. Among the works in her selection are pieces by Mimmo Rotella, which she felt had “a real intimate quality” likening them to her diaries, as well as works by Jean Arp, Atsuko Tanaka and Man Ray. A colourful grid tapestry by Alighiero Boetti, from an “Italian period which I [Marie-Louise] very much love”, is also spotlighted alongside works by Gino de Dominicis, Piero Dorazio and two bronze sculptures by Lucio Fontana. Please find further information on Marie-Louise’s curated edit below.
There aren’t any guiding principles that draw me to an artwork. Different artists do different things for me. Art moves me, it makes me calm. It makes me still, but it can also make me agitated. As humans, we are made up of so many different emotions, and a specific artwork can pull on specific strings. For my curated edit, I selected artworks that elicited these alternate feelings - whether that be joy, calm, anger, happiness, and much more.
