Lucio Fontana Value: Top Prices Paid at Auction

Fontana's current auction record was set when a vibrant yellow Concetto Spaziale, La Fine Di Dio (1963-64) sold at Christie's New York in November 2015. This iconic egg-shaped canvas - punctured with dozens of holes that create a constellation effect - represents the pinnacle of Fontana's artistic achievement and philosophical inquiry. The work belongs to a series of just 38 oval canvases that Fontana produced in various colours, each perforated in unique patterns. The title, translating to "The End of God," reflects Fontana's engagement with profound spiritual questions during a period of rapid scientific advancements known as the Space Race. Fontana himself described these works as "the infinite, something inconceivable, the end of figurative representation, the beginning of nothing."

Another yellow La Fine Di Dio achieved this impressive result at Sotheby's New York in May 2024, making it the most recent sale on this list. The composition varies slightly from its record-breaking counterpart, demonstrating Fontana's careful consideration of each work's specific puncture pattern. The egg's symbolic associations with creation and the universe, combined with Fontana's precise technical execution, make these works particularly significant within his oeuvre and 20th century art history more broadly. This specific piece has been exhibited across the globe, beginning with the Marlborough Gallery in Rome and travelling to The Warehouse in Dallas, MoMA in New York, and Anders Wall in Stockholm. It had previously been in private collections since the 1960s, with its recent emergence on the market generating significant interest among collectors.

This brown-hued La Fine Di Dio canvas sold at Christie's London in October 2018 - a significant increase on its £11.6million sale in 2013. The darker palette offers a striking variation on the series, with the deep, rich surface creating a different sensory experience from the more vibrant examples. The perforations, which appear almost like craters or voids against the brown background, create a meditation on emptiness and form that aligns with Fontana's interest in Eastern philosophical concepts. The brown colouration connects to earthly elements, creating an interesting counterpoint to the more celestial associations of the yellow versions, while still engaging with the fundamental questions of space, void, and materiality that defined Fontana's practice. Aside from a brief display at the Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels, in 1972, the work had remained hidden from public view until its sale in 2018.

A white La Dine Di Dio achieved this result at Sotheby's New York in November 2023. The white canvas offers perhaps the most direct expression of Fontana's interest in light, space, and void - core concerns of the Spatialist (Spazialismo) movement. The perforations on the white surface create dramatic shadow effects that change with viewing angle and lighting conditions, embodying Fontana's aim to create works that transcend traditional two-dimensionality and incorporate the fourth dimension of time through the viewer's changing perception. Before its sale in 2023, the piece had been sold privately and at auction more than 10 times and featured at exhibitions at London’s Whitechapel Gallery in 1988, New York’s Gagosian Gallery in 2012, and beyond.

A black La Fine Di Dio from the series sold at Sotheby's in October 2015, just weeks before the record-setting yellow version. The black version creates a different sensory experience from the yellow and white examples, with the perforations appearing as points of light against the darkness - like stars in the night sky. The consistent seven and eight-figure results achieved by the La Fine Di Dio series reflect their status as Fontana's magnum opus. Their cosmic imagery connects directly to Fontana's interest in space exploration and the changing human understanding of the universe during the 1960s.

This large-scale metallic canvas sold at Christie's Paris in October 2022. At 200 x 200 cm, it is one of Fontana's most ambitious spatial concepts, with its pristine surface activated by a carefully orchestrated pattern of punctures. Unlike the egg-shaped works, this square canvas offers a different formal relationship with space, creating a more meditative field for Fontana's interventions that adheres to more conventional forms of art. The work's impressive scale adds to its immersive quality, inviting viewers to experience the interplay of light, shadow, and dimension enhanced by the shiny surface.

This panoramic red Concetto Spaziale, Attese (1965) with its characteristic vertical slashes sold at Sotheby's New York in November 2015. Some of its unique appeal comes in the form of an inscription by Fontana himself: “I came back from Venice yesterday, I saw Antonioni’s film!!!” written in Italian on the back. The decisive yet spontaneous vertical incisions in this canvas from Fontana's tagli (cuts) series reveal the dark void behind the surface, distinguishing it from his earlier punctured works. Beginning in 1958, the tagli series has become Fontana's most widely recognised contribution to art history and an iconic symbol of post-war European Modernism. These slashes represent a simultaneously destructive and creative gesture - rather than merely painting space and light onto the canvas, Fontana literally opened it up, inviting real space into the artwork itself.

Another red tagli work achieved a similarly impressive result at Christie's New York in May 2015, this time with slashes that break through the boundaries of the canvas. The title Attese, meaning "expectations" or "waiting," reflects Fontana's interest in the viewer's experience of discovery when encountering his work. He was acutely aware of composition and spacing, even in these deceptively simple works, aiming always to capture attention and create pause for thought. He described the slash as "a clean cut, with nothing mysterious about it... I have created this dimension and I have created infinity." He would prepare the canvas with a solid monochrome surface, outline his intended cuts with pencil, and then use a special blade to create the perfectly smooth incisions - a process requiring considerable control, practice, and confidence.

This egg-shaped work sold at Sotheby's London in February 2008, representing one of the earliest major auction results for Fontana's La Fine Di Dio series. This sale was a record for Fontana at the time, and helped to establish the foundational market value for these iconic pieces before the significant price appreciation seen in subsequent years. It signaled growing international recognition of Fontana's importance in art history and his influence on subsequent generations of artists. Aside from exhibition at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, in 1989, the piece has rarely been publicly displayed, though its gold glitter finish adds to its uniqueness and interest for collectors.

This work, unique on this list because of its developed title, sold at Christie's London in October 2017. Unlike the monochrome tagli or La Fine Di Dio series, this piece outlines the layout of Venice's St. Mark's Square with perforations and uses coloured glass stones to suggest a crowd within. It forms part of a larger series of Venice artworks, in which he engaged with architectural and spatial elements of the historic city. This combination of traditional reference points with radical formal innovation connects Fontana’s work to contemporaneous movements like Zero in Germany and Minimalism in America, though Fontana's philosophical grounding in Spatialism gave his work a distinctive conceptual framework that continues to resonate with collectors and art historians alike.