#MiroševićSorgo #Collection #Essex #sale #Antique #Collecting
The collection from a family of Croatian nobility will go under the hammer in an Essex saleroom this summer.
The Mirošević-Sorgo Collection was removed from two London flats in Kensington and Earls Court, and comprises 180 lots across fine furniture, Old Master paintings and icons, silver, classical antiquities and curios, all by family descent. The items will be sold at Colchester auction house Reeman Dansie on July 2 and 3 in their July Fine Art auction.
The Mirošević-Sorgo family was Dubrovnik nobility who emigrated to the UK in the 1940s. They counted amongst their members Count Niko Mirošević-Sorgo (1885-1966), Yugoslavian ambassador to the Vatican, who was gifted a pair of 18th-century giltwood chairs by Pope Pius XII, which features in the sale. Family tradition maintains the chairs were originally in the Vatican. They are estimated at £1,000-1,500.
Other furniture in the collection is known to have been acquired directly from General Marmont, Napoleon’s general who was given the title of duc de Raguse when Napoleon appointed him as governor of the Illyrian provinces.
Further highlights in this collection include a small carved onyx or chalcedony figure of Emperor Trajan, probably 4th-century A.D., and estimated at £3,000-5,000; a 16th-century Creto-Venetian icon, estimated at £2,500-4,000; and a Pompeian style, late 18th-century Italian painted plaster table plateau, estimated at £5,000-10,000.
Daniel Wright of Reeman Dansie commented: “It has been a real pleasure to handle this exceptional collection. It is rare to see such a wealth of museum quality works of art. Some items were sold from the collection some decades back, including a Fra Angelico Madonna, now in the Getty Museum, which demonstrates the potential significance of the present lots. With such a wealth of historical lots and such rich provenance, the collection is anticipated to cause significant interest when it comes under the hammer on July 3.”
