Art works from the Trombetta Collection

Edmondo Trombetta: italian banker, investor and art collector

Auction in Wurzburg:
Saturday, 24 October 2020 – 2 pm

Preview in Wurzburg:
October 12 until 23 from 10 am to 5 pm daily

Catalogue order

COVID-19 notice:
If possible, please make an appointment to visit the preview. We kindly ask you to reserve a seat for the auction. 

Those who study the art of the Kissi and their famous stone sculptures will inevitably come across the name Edmondo Trombetta, banker, investor and art collector from Italy. Several of his „Sherbo“ stone figures were published by Aldo Tagliaferri in 1989 in „Stili del potere: antiche sculture in pietra dalla Sierra Leone e dalla Guinea“, and in 2003 in „Pomdo, Mahen Yafe and Nomoli“.

Today, a large number of art pieces can be found in noted private collections and in art museums, such as the Bundu helmet masks of the Mende-Vai, icons of this mask type, now in the art collection of Vittorio Carini, or the ivory horn which can now be found in the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco.

Trombetta spent a large part of his life in Africa. Starting in 1978, he managed the Liberian Trading and Development Bank in Monrovia. In 1982, together with partners, he founded the private bank Meridien. After eventually selling the bank , he invested in the logging sector.

Due to the civil war Trombetta had to leave Liberia, first going to Nigeria, then to Zanzibar, the Central African Republic, Côte d‘Ivoire and finally to Sierra Leone, where he still owns a rubber farm.

„The life in the forest regions, the close contact to the people, their religion, their cults, all this interested me very much and shaped my collection of African art“. [Edmondo Trombetta, 2020]

Gabun, Kota, Ndassa, Collection Edmondo Trombetta

Gabun, Kota, Ndassa

Provenance:
René (1920-1981) and Mercedes Lavigne, Geneva
Christie's, South Kensington (24 March 1988)
Edmondo Trombetta, Monza

Son, Zon, Liberai, Dan, Nuopie, Collection Edmondo Trombetta

Master Son (Zon) (~1910/20-1985), Liberia, southwestern Dan, Nuopie

Provenance:
Edmondo Trombetta, Monza (coll. in situ 1978-80)

Côte d'Ivoire, Dan, Collection Edmondo Trombetta

Côte d'Ivoire, Dan

Provenance:
René (1920-1981) and Mercedes Lavigne, Geneva
Christie's, South Kensington (24 March 1988)
Edmondo Trombetta, Monza