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A Season of Records
A SEASON OF RECORDS
Massimo NavoniThe word “auction” comes from the Latin for “increase”; only in Italian and Spanish is an auction called “asta” or “subasta” after the Latin phrase “Sub hasta vendere”: to sell under the spear. A spear planted in the ground, in fact, gave an auction its authority, with a soldierly tinge. Spear, meet hammer. Massimo Navoni brings together here the stories of three auctions, linked by the hammer prices achieved. The works themselves could not be more varied – an eighteenth-century view of Venetian splendor, an exquisite example of early twentieth-century design, and a rare eighteenth-century tome. Even the most refined reader will forgive us if – faced with such splendor – we pause for a moment, like Gatsby in Daisy’s dazzling world, torn between admiration and disbelief, to glance at the price tag.
