The market for Italian art and Italian art market have both been strong over the last several years. Rising with the explosion of prices but also tracking in a possibly more sustainable way. That may be good fortune for the creditors of Alitalia. The company’s art collection is going on the block in December and might bring in €1m. A nice sum but hardly a dent in the €300m state loan. Bloomberg reported the story yesterday:

Augusto Fantozzi, appointed by the Italian government last year to oversee Alitalia’s breakup and bankruptcy, appointed Finarte Casa d’Aste SpA to sell about 200 works, including a Gino Severini picture commissioned by the Rome-based airline for its Paris office in the 1950s, the Milan-based auction house said in a release today.

The collection includes some 50 major works and 140 items of graphic art, a Finarte official said by phone. Alitalia built its collection of Italian modern art between the 1950s and the 1960s, Finarte said. Works on paper by Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana are also part of the collection.

Alitalia to Auction Art Collection Valued at 1 Million Euros (Bloomberg)