The record-breaking £73 million Karpidas sale in London last fall was proof positive that the Surrealism craze is still going strong. Now, one of the top consignments headlining Sotheby's May marquee week is the collection of Milan-born artist Enrico Donati, “the last Surrealist.” Among the most significant single-owner collections of the season, his trove is expected to generate $50-80 million—a valuation partially buoyed by the story of a fascinating figure almost inseparable from the movement itself.
Donati’s path into art was notably circuitous. After studying economics in Pavia and music in Milan, he turned to painting later in life, a decision that first took him to Paris and, following the outbreak of war, to New York. There, he entered Surrealist circles, forming close relationships with leading émigré artists of the era, including André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy. His art collection emerged from these relationships, resulting in a remarkable group of masterworks acquired directly from the artists. Many have rarely been seen or exhibited, as Donati’s attachment to them was not merely aesthetic but deeply personal.
Leading the group is Picasso’s Arlequin (Buste), which will headline the Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction on May 19. Painted in 1909, just a few years after Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, it carries an estimate of more than $40 million. The subject is one of Picasso’s most beloved recurring motifs—the harlequin—transformed here through the radical Cubist lens into a dynamically fragmented, earthy-toned composition. Donati encountered the work at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris and was immediately captivated. Soon after, he visited the Galerie Louise Leiris, where he met Picasso’s legendary dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and asked him about the price. In response, Kahnweiler asked Donati how much he had, and promptly suggested that the price was exactly what Donati had in his pockets. It remained in the artist’s collection for more than 60 years.
Another much-anticipated highlight is Kandinsky’s Rote Tiefe (Estimate: $12-18 million), painted at the height of his Bauhaus period in June 1925. It is one of the final paintings Kandinsky produced that year, as his focus increasingly shifted toward teaching and his mature artistic theory. Donati, who had studied music, must have immediately responded to the sense of musicality that animates the composition. Notably, this canvas comes to auction just after Kandinsky’s Le rond rouge (The Red Circle), dated 1939, sold for £12,545,000 ($16.73 million) at Christie’s London March Evening Sale, having been on long-term loan to the Courtauld Gallery from 2002 to 2018.
Also going on the block is a mobile by Alexander Calder, Untitled (1950), which Donati acquired in exchange for one of his own drawings, now estimated at $700,000-$1 million. By Yves Tanguy, another close friend of Donati, is Aux aguets le jour, gifted to him directly by the artist and estimated at $800,000-$1.2 million. An otherworldly lunar landscape, it distills all the temporal and spatial estrangement that informs the mystery of Tanguy’s work, with a somber atmosphere carrying a melancholic undercurrent of exile and isolation. When he painted it, Tanguy had just settled with Kay Sage at Town Farm in Woodbury, Connecticut, which had become a gathering place for avant-garde artists, including Donati. Some works in the collection are examples of his direct collaborations with his peers, among them Prière de toucher (cover for “Le Surréalisme en 1947”), created together with Marcel Duchamp and estimated at $15,000-25,000.
Donati further expanded the collection with the help of his wife, Adele Schmidt, who brought her own artistic training and sharp visual sensibility to their shared pursuits. Schmidt built a successful career in New York as a designer and later served as creative director at the French perfume house Houbigant. She was also an active philanthropist and animal rights advocate, serving on several boards.
In addition to works by his contemporaries, Donati—like many Surrealists—was deeply fascinated by so-called “primitive” art, particularly African masks. Among the objects in his collection is a 19th-century shaman’s mask by a Yup’ik or Inupiaq artist from Alaska. Believed to have functioned as a vehicle for connecting the physical and spiritual worlds, it is expected to achieve $300,000-500,000. Another mask, with horns, by a Bété or Guro artist from Côte d’Ivoire, also dating to the 19th century, carries an estimate of $100,000-150,000. Both will be offered in the Art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas sale on June 18.
Unlike many of his peers, Donati maintained a lifelong commitment to Surrealist principles. Even as the movement waned and many artists turned toward abstraction or other modes of expression, he continued working within a Surrealist lexicon until his death. A defining aspect of his practice was his experimentation with unconventional materials, particularly sand, which he used to create textured, almost fossil-like surfaces that evoke organic forms and constellations, bridging microscopic and macroscopic worlds.
Donati took part in the landmark 1947 “International Surrealist Exhibition” in Paris, organized by André Breton and Marcel Duchamp and widely considered the final major Surrealist group show. In New York, his work was exhibited at the influential Julien Levy Gallery, and today it is held in major institutions including MoMA and the Guggenheim.
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