Pre-Lot Text
THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTOR
Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965) was a principle of the most renowned art-dealing family in Rome. The firm was located at 117 via Ripetta at Palazzo Borghese and was famous for many important auctions, with catalogues written in collaboration with leading scholars. The galleria specialized in ancient art, furniture, ceramics and textiles. As a private collector, Sangiorgi assembled an important ancient glass collection, which he published in 1914. Masterpieces from it were sold in the 1960s and are now the pride of numerous institutions such as the Toledo Museum of Art and the Corning Museum of Glass; the bulk of the collection was sold here at Christie’s New York in June 1999, “Ancient Glass formerly in the G. Sangiorgi Collection.” As with the glass collection, many of the objects in his personal collection, such as the gems presented here, were acquired throughout Europe and never imported into Italy.