It exceeded estimates, becoming the poster of the painter and illustrator Marcello Dudovich (Trieste, 21 March 1878 – Milan, 31 March 1962), one of the fathers of modern advertising posters, the most expensive ever sold at auction: the Cablé Confort Michelin was sold for 100 thousand euros (including rights) during the sale of the posters which took place on 16 and 17 April in Sala Bolaffi in Turin.
The winner, after a heated competition with online participants and pallets in Sala Bolaffi, was a famous Italian collector with a passion for vintage cars and automotive memorabilia, connected by telephone. The famous Bibendum, Michelin’s mascot, therefore remains in Italy, represented in the poster lying comfortably inside a tire while studying the road map of our country (lot 46).
Filippo Bolaffi, CEO of Aste Bolaffi, commented: «After many years we are back “on track” with a truly unique poster auction in terms of variety and selection of material and I am pleased that this event was marked by a prestigious record for one of our great authors. Dudovich’s poster is one of the most expensive ever sold in the world.”
The auction, in which collectors from all over the world, in particular from the United States, France and the United Kingdom, participated via the astebolaffi.it website, closed with a total result of over 570 thousand euros including fees.
On the podium of the top lots, in second place was another poster by Dudovich also with an automotive theme, the sought-after poster from 1908 for the Società Torinese Automobili Elettrici, of which very few examples are known (lot 107, 25 thousand euros including rights). , while in third place was Umberto Di Lazzaro’s 1933 poster for the tenth anniversary air cruise (lot 123, 17,500 euros including fees).