The great masters have always drawn on the same models, reinterpreting them and handing them down. A pose invented in ancient Greece resurfaces in a seventeenth-century bronze; an imperial face returns in a marble carved three hundred years later.
It is an invisible thread linking works separated by centuries. Immortal Art follows that thread. And a work becomes truly yours only once you know its story.
Featured in the Series
Private Collections in Switzerland
Works featured in the series. Open a photograph to see each work from every side; where a work is a pair, each piece has its own images. The others remain in their crates, out of sight.
5 photos
Oil on poplar panel · anonymous painter, 16th century, after Michelangelo's Last Judgment (after 1541)
Resurrection of the Dead and Ascent of the Elect
One corner of Michelangelo's Last Judgment, painted again in the sixteenth century by an artist we cannot name.
Tempera and gold on panel · circle of Simone dei Crocifissi, third quarter of the 14th century
Madonna and Child (Glykophilousa)
The Virgin tenderly kissing her Son: the ‘Madonna of Tenderness’, an image of Byzantine origin.
4 photos
Bronze · probably French, mid-18th century
Venus Anadyomene
We all know her: a woman rising from the sea.
Pair · 6 photos
White marble · Veneto, late 18th century
Pair of Figures with Cornucopia
An ancient symbol of fortune and abundance, raised high.
2 photos
Portuguese pink marble · 2013
The Sower
Contemporary sculpture · 140 × 40 × 15 cm
2 photos
Portuguese pink marble · 2013
Archangel Michael
Contemporary sculpture · 203 × 56 × 14 cm
2 photos
Portuguese pink marble · 2013
Saint Rita
Contemporary sculpture · 97 × 43 × 23 cm
2 photos
Carrara statuario marble · 2013
Annunciation
Contemporary sculpture · 63 × 50 × 13 cm
2 photos
Carrara statuario marble · 2013
Female Face
Contemporary sculpture · 44 × 28 × 15 cm
2 photos
Carrara statuario marble · 2013
Madonna of the Sun
Contemporary sculpture · 65 × 40 × 24 cm
2 photos
Polychrome stained glass · Florentine workshop, 19th century
Saint George
The Saint George Donatello carved in marble, remade in glass four centuries later.
6 photos
Patinated bronze · attributed to Francesco Righetti (1749–1819), after the antique, late 18th – early 19th century
Farnese Bull
Two brothers, a bull, and a punishment two thousand years old.
4 photos
Patinated bronze on marble · after the antique, first half of the 18th century
Marcus Aurelius on Horseback
A reduction of one of the most celebrated bronzes of antiquity, which survived only thanks to a mistake.
Pair · 6 photos
White marble · after Canova, first half of the 19th century
Pair of Lions
They guard a tomb: one sleeps, the other keeps watch.
Marble · Neoclassical, central Italy, 19th century
Pair of Medici Vases
Two thousand years ago this shape wasn't made for flowers.
6 photos
Amber, ivory and wood · Gdańsk (Danzig), last quarter of the 17th century
Pair of Candlesticks
Baltic amber, inset with ivory carvings barely four centimetres tall.
4 photos
Patinated bronze · Antonio Susini (1558–1624), after Giambologna, late 16th century
Horse
Cast by one of the greatest bronze founders of his time.
6 photos
White marble · Verde di Prato base, 19th century
Bust of Antinous
An emperor loved him enough to make him a god.
6 photos
Patinated bronze · attributed to Ercole Ferrata, Rome, 17th century
The Infant Saint John the Baptist
Modelled by a man who worked alongside Bernini.
4 photos
Patinated bronze · Damiano Cappelli, 17th century
Lion Hunt
A hunter, a horse, a lion: one of four hunts in the series.
5 photos
Bronze and marble · Central Italian Baroque sculptor, 17th century
Seated Putto
A bronze child on a marble cushion.
Pair · 6 photos
Patinated bronze · attributed to Ferdinando Tacca, 17th century
Pair of Young Musicians
He plays the violin, she dances with a tambourine: Orpheus and a maenad.
Pair · 6 photos
Marble · late 18th – early 19th century
Pair of Roman Emperors
Two emperors carved when Rome was already a memory.
4 photos
Marble and alabaster · Lombardy, second half of the 16th century
Bust of Hadrian
There's a second face on this emperor — and it isn't his.
Pair · 6 photos
Alabaster · manner of Giovanni Insom, first half of the 19th century
Venus and Flora
Alabaster does not reflect light: it lets it through.
4 photos
Alabaster · 19th century
Sea Nymph
The sea was full of nymphs. This is one of them.
3 photos
Alabaster · attributed to Bambaia or Benedetto Cervi, c. 1525–1535
Tazza
At the base, four intertwined dolphins.
4 photos
Marble · Veneto, 17th century
Putto with Grapes and Wheat
Grapes in one hand, wheat in the other: Bacchus and Ceres.
4 photos
Marble · Florentine, close to the manner of Baccio Bandinelli, second quarter of the 16th century
Head of a Bearded Man
Presumably a study for a larger sculpture.
4 photos
Marble · attributed to Desiderio da Settignano, c. 1456–1457
Head of a Child
Cold marble becoming a child's skin.
2 photos
Stone · Roman sculptor, 17th century
Lion's Head
Four hundred years looking in the same direction.
5 photos
Marble and alabaster · Lombard workshop, late 16th – early 17th century
Bust of a Roman Empress
The hairstyle seen in many portraits of Vibia Sabina, wife of the emperor Hadrian: this is why the bust is believed to portray her.
We show only a part: the rest stays in shadow, for now. The documentation accompanying each work is confidential and available, on request, to interested collectors.
Works in Italy
A selection of works currently without a free-circulation certificate (attestato di libera circolazione). They may be purchased and ownership transferred; any definitive export is subject to the issue of the authorisations required by the legislation in force. The buyer may, where applicable, apply for such issue under the prescribed procedure.
What is possible
The work may be purchased and pass into new ownership. It may be kept in Italy or, should the buyer wish to move it abroad, the prescribed procedure to apply for the free-circulation certificate may be started.
How we proceed
Immortal Art makes available, in confidence, the documentation held for each work and accompanies the buyer in assessing the steps required, including any procedure for applying for the free-circulation certificate.
2 photos
Istrian stone · Veneto, 16th century
Candelabra Relief
A vegetal stem rising straight for nearly two metres, like a motionless flame.
2 photos
Marble · Italy, 5th century AD
Late Antique Capital
The oldest piece here: carved as Rome was ending, reused in the Middle Ages.
3 photos
Stone · Abruzzo, 12th century
Romanesque Capital with a Fantastic Beast
A creature that does not exist, carved by someone who had never seen it.
2 photos
Marble · Marche, 12th century
Capital with Faces in Niches
Faces looking out from arched niches, each one different.
2 photos
Greek marble · 12th century
Romanesque Capital with Plant Motifs
Stylised branches and, above, a cross within a double circle.
2 photos
White marble · 13th century
Capital with Shield and Franciscan Tau
Inside the shield, a T: perhaps the tau, the Franciscan signature.
3 photos
Marble · Italian, 15th century
Capital Decorated with Grapes
Grape clusters among the acanthus leaves.
4 photos
Stone · Emilia, 14th century
Corbel with a Human Figure
It carried a weight, and while carrying it watched whoever passed below.
Pair · 6 photos
Red Verona marble · 14th century
Pair of Capitals
Two Corinthian capitals in red Verona marble, with acanthus leaves.
4 photos
Stone · Rosso Levanto marble base, 14th century
Holy Water Stoup
A basin carved to the last inch: animals and plants inside small arches and columns.
3 photos
White marble · 15th century
Capital with a Panther
Acanthus on all four sides, and a rampant panther: heraldry between Lucca and Siena.
2 photos
White marble · probably Roman, early 16th century
Capital with Cherubs
Four cherub heads on the abacus; the corner volutes are lost.
3 photos
Stone · Po Valley, 15th century
Capital with a Coat of Arms in a Mullioned Window
The arms sit inside a carved window: architecture within architecture.
Pair · 6 photos
Greek marble · circle of Francesco di Giorgio Martini, c. 1490
Pair of Half-Capitals with Animals
Two non-identical twins. The closest comparison is at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Pair · 7 photos
Stone · Lombardy, second half of the 15th century
Pair of Capitals with Coats of Arms
An eagle and a lion on one, a panther on the other: the arms of a Lombard family.
4 photos
Stone · Italian, 15th century
Corinthian Capital
The richest order of antiquity, remade in the fifteenth century.
Pair · 4 photos
Breccia medicea · Renaissance shaft, 17th-century base and capital
Pair of Renaissance Columns
Shaft, base and capital: two complete columns, not fragments.
3 photos
Sandstone · Tuscany, 17th century
Arms of the Pichi Family
Three woodpeckers and three lilies: the arms of a family from Sansepolcro.
Each episode is a single work. Mariami stands beside it and tells where its image comes from: which ancient gesture it repeats, who invented it, how it reached us. Then the camera moves closer, and what remains is the detail no photograph holds.
One minute per episode, in English. Not a lesson: a story.
“The works are not in a gallery. They sleep in a private storeroom, inside identical wooden crates: one comes out at a time, long enough to be told.”
In private
Contact
Should a work have captured your interest, the conversation continues in private.
Private Enquiry
Your enquiry will be handled personally and in confidence.
Please share a few details about yourself and the artwork of interest, so that we may provide information on price, provenance and available documentation, or arrange a private viewing where possible.