My uncle Romolo passed away in 2018. Over the course of the last 5 years we have been working on settling his estate. My brother and I acquired some of his collection of art. Including a very large collection of work by Irma Giudici Russo and a purported John Singer Sargent painting with a sketch on the back of the canvas.
But before we get into that a bit about my uncle. He never married, but he did have a life partner, Irma Giudici Russo. As a young man he wanted to be an architect. For some reason that did not happen and he pursued art. He was a decent artist but not great. At some point he decided to represent artists and work as a fine art dealer. The most famous artist he represented was Giacomo Manzu. Manzu was a famous Italian sculptor. He designed the Death Doors at St. Peter's Basillica for Pope John Paul.
Romolo's partner, Irma Giudici Russo was an accomplished artist in the Chiasso region of southern Switzerland. She passed away around 1993 after spending 42+ years with my uncle. They never had children.
In the early 50s my uncle acquired a painting he had labeled as a John Singer Sargent. I was told by my mother it was from the time Sargent spent in art school in Italy. It is not signed and if there was provenance, we did not recieve that with the works. In addition to that, as a result of his relationship and through the inheritence, we ended up with one of the largest collections of Irma Giudici Russo's work in the world. One of the larger pieces (a life sized statue), we donated to the municipality of Chiasso. The rest, about 2 dozen paintings, and numerous carvings and a sculpture ended up with us.
Most of the work (and there is some not shown) is available for acquisition. Because of the nature of the work, we will not be rushing into any sale. We will research possible buyers and confirm all payments before shipping anything.
See the link below to view the artwork.