Bronze multiple, lost-wax casting by Microfonderia Geccherle, Milan, with etched artist signature and edition number "Arnaldo Pomodoro 31/35" to plexiglass base. Published in the artist’s Catalogue Raisonné as n.86, archive number M/78/9.


Sphere 5 7/8 in. diameter; Base 3/4 x 5 7/8 x 5 7/8 in.

From the Collection of the late William and Sara McCoy, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

This edition was produced for Carter and Associates Inc., Atlanta, Georgia.

Arnaldo Pomodoro was born in Montefeltro in 1926, he spent his childhood and education in Pesaro. He lives and works in Milan since 1954. His works from the 1950s are high-reliefs where a unique and previously unknown sculptural “writing” emerged, variously interpreted by the most important critics. In the early 1960s he turned to three-dimensional work and focused his research into the solid geometric form: spheres, discs, pyramids, cones, columns, cubes – all in burnished bronze – are lacerated, corroded, excavated in their depths, with the intention of destroying their perfection and discovering the mystery closed within.

In 1966, he was commissioned to make a sphere, three and a half metres in diameter, for the Expo in Montreal. Now in front of the Farnesina in Rome, it marks his shift towards monumental sculpture. This was the first of several works by the artist placed in symbolically important public spaces: in many city squares (Milan, Copenhagen, Brisbane, Los Angeles, Darmstadt), in front of Trinity College, Dublin, Mills College in California, the Cortile della Pigna in the Vatican, opposite the United Nations in New York, at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, in the PepsiCo sculpture gardens in Purchase, and in those of the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, just outside New York City.

He has made many environmental works, and his work has been exhibited widely,
with several memorable retrospectives that have consolidated his reputation as one of the most significant contemporary artists. His traveling exhibitions have toured throughout Europe, America, Australia and Japan.

We would like to thank the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro for their assistance with cataloguing this Lot.


Good condition; lucite with some minor scratches and one fleabite to corner.