A GILTWOOD AND POLYCHROME-DECORATED FIGURE OF SAINT MICHAEL WEIGHING SOULS
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF HAROLD AND GLORIA HECHT
A GILTWOOD AND POLYCHROME-DECORATED FIGURE OF SAINT MICHAEL WEIGHING SOULS

ITALIAN, POSSIBLY PERUGIA, LATE 15TH CENTURY

Details
A GILTWOOD AND POLYCHROME-DECORATED FIGURE OF SAINT MICHAEL WEIGHING SOULS
ITALIAN, POSSIBLY PERUGIA, LATE 15TH CENTURY
Depicted with wings, his proper right arm raised, standing on a winged monster which is clutching souls in each paw, losses
71 in. (180 cm.) high
Provenance
Simonetti Collection, Rome.
With Adolf Loewi, Loewi-Robertson, Los Angeles.
Harold Hecht, Los Angeles.
The Gloria Hecht Desser Trust and by descent.
Exhibited
Sculpture Past and Present, Dickinson Art Center, University of California, Los Angeles, 21 January-10 March, 1957.
Art of the Middle Ages, Scripps College, Claremont, California, March, 1968.

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Lot Essay

Harold and Gloria Hecht possessed one of the great art collections in America in the mid-1950's. At one time their collection included works by Van Gogh (L'Arlesienne), Chagall, Modigliani, Dufy, Delacroix, John Singer Sargent (Portrait of Eleanora Duse), Miro, Klee, Jawlensky, Picasso, Rouault, Renoir and an extensive statuary collection of Pre-Columbian figures. They acquired St. Michael Weighing Souls soon after he won the Oscar for 'Marty,' Best Picture of 1955.

The producing team of Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster produced some of the most successful and critically acclaimed movies of all time including 'Marty' (Best Picture Oscar), 'Sweet Smell of Success,' 'Birdman of Alcatraz,' 'Separate Tables' (Best Actor Oscar, David Niven) as well as genre favorites 'Vera Cruz,' 'Trapeze,' and 'The Crimson Pirate' and later, as a solo producer, "Cat Ballou" (Best Actor Oscar, Lee Marvin).

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