Since Koller’s first specialist auction dedicated to Post-War & Contemporary Art in June 2008, the department has not ceased to develop. Thanks to an ever-growing international reach and focused marketing, we have succeeded in establishing a distinct position within this often highly dynamic market. Over the past 18 years, auction turnover has increased continuously, and numerous works have achieved record prices.

Domenico Gnoli’s ‘Zipper no. 2’ from 1968 was the top lot of the Post-War segment at Koller’s June auction, fetching just under CHF 3.1 million. It also stands out as an exceptional work within this market segment in a European context. Gnoli is considered one of the most original artistic figures of the Italian post-war period. In the 1960s, he developed a pictorial language based on extreme enlargement, fragmentation and the isolation of items of clothing, fabric and furniture. Like many of his motifs, ‘Zipper no. 2’ transforms the seemingly mundane into an image of universal resonance. Gnoli remained an artist between worlds: between illustration and painting, between Surrealism and Pop, between Europe and America.