“Fellini drew continuously”, tell Bertolami Fine Art, “on any surface and with the most diverse techniques: with ink, ballpoint pen, markers and pencil, on notebook sheets, napkins, sheet music, cards, restaurant, in the office or on the set ». And then we discover the collection offered at the auction, starting with that Signor Fausto (“Is Signor Fausto there?”, “Postaa for Signor Fausto”, “Faustinooo ..”) who pays homage to the sound engineer Franco Ancillai – recipient of the collection. But there is also an erotic drawing, in pencil, 33 x 23 cm; and again the sketch of Doctor Xavier Katzone, the unforgettable character of the City of Women (1980).
Unfortunately, too many drawings of that vast collection have been lost. It happens that some specimens go to auction from time to time, such as Interview 87 sold by Capitolium Art for € 2,800; or even that Book of Dreams. Leone / Bernhard who from Ansuini, in 2016, totaled € 13,500. But they are comet stars, very few sketches have survived the scythe of time. Hence, the notification of the Ministry, which declares them assets of exceptional cultural interest: “The bond”, explains the sole administrator Giuseppe Bertolami, “determines the ban on exporting and dispersing the collection, which can only be purchased in bulk and cannot be brought beyond national borders “. And he adds: “We have already warned foreign customers interested in the tender to withdraw their offers.”
“Design, a natural continuation of his thinking, was Fellini’s first profession, the talent to rely on to make his first earnings”, explains the Roman maison. «At a very young age, he sketched the caricatures of tourists on vacation in Rimini or those of Hollywood stars on commission from the Fulgor cinema. And it was the cartoons published by the satirical magazine Marc’Aurelio that guaranteed his survival in the early years of his Roman adventure – he had moved to the capital at the end of the 1930s – just as it seemed natural to him, in the difficult days of the end of the war, to land the money by selling his brilliant humorous portraits to American soldiers stationed in Rome ».
A few more hours to win the drawings of the master of cinema, Bertolami’s online enchantment closes today.