Auction introduction: On the third week of October, Paris will once again be at the heart of the international market for modern, post-war and contemporary art. To mark the occasion, Christie’s will present the third edition of Avant-Garde(s) Including Thinking Italian, an exceptional sale paying tribute to the great figures who shaped the art of the 20th and 21st centuries. The auction features rare and prestigious provenances, with a rare studio view by Alberto Giacometti, a ‘transparency’ painting by Francis Picabia that has been in the same important private collection for half a century, a historic canvas by Joan Mitchell from the Jacques Dubourg collection, and a spectacular 1965 painting by Zao Wou-Ki, alongside works by François-Xavier Lalanne, Nicolasde Staël and Georges Seurat. The Thinking Italian section offers the best experimental and avant-garde expressions of the Italian artistic panorama of the 20th century: from the metaphysical painting of de Chirico to the Spatialism of Fontana, from the self-referential painting-object of Schifano, to the extroflexed canvases of Castellani, the purity of Manzoni’s Achrome and Gnoli’s enlarged painted details, as well as the inventions of Boetti. This year will include a special focus on the Arte Poveramovement with works by Penone, Paolini and the other representatives of the group. Explore the 20th/21st Century Art auction series in Paris