Attracting a pre-sale estimate of £1.2m to £1.8m Alighiero E Boetti's 1984 comprises 192 intricate pencil drawings of magazine covers published in 1984.
Composed of 12 panels, each documenting a month of the year, it is the first time this work has appeared at auction.
Boetti was a key member of the Arte Povera group of young Italian artists in the late 1960s which worked in radically new ways using simple and everyday materials.
 Boetti's 1984 couild make £1.8m |
While Boetti is most famous for his series of large embroidered maps of the world, Mappa, he is also renowned for his pop art in which he used stamps, pens and magazine covers.
During his lifetime Boetti enjoyed both commercial and critical success and was the subject of a number of exhibitions.
His first solo show was in 1967 at the Turin gallery of Christian Stein and later that year he participated in an exhibition at Galleria La Beriesca in Genoa. He continued to exhibit throughout Italy and the US until his death in 1994.
Boetti's 1990 work La Forza del Centro made £9,600 at Bonhams in 2009.
The creation of a contemporary art department at Bonhams is further evidence of the growing popularity for this genre among collectors, who are looking for pieces that could be of real value in years to come.
Paul Fraser Collectibles will bring you further previews from the sale over the coming weeks and all the main results.
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