VAN NUYS, CALIF.- LA Modern Auctions (LAMA) announced its inaugural Design auction, which celebrates and expands upon the company’s history of elevating the field of modern design. This November 17th auction is led by significant works from The Peter Loughrey Collection.

Especially momentous is an important group of unique furnishings designed by Gio Ponti for the Ceccato family of Milan, including collaborations with Piero Fornasetti and Paolo de Poli. Further highlights of the collection include furnishings from Sam Maloof and Warren Platner, early Eames designs and rare ephemera, a large-scale Victor Vasarely tapestry, ceramics from Stan Bitters and Architectural Pottery, and art brooches from Fletcher Benton, Claire Falkenstein, Margaret De Patta, and Art Smith. Complementing the Peter Loughrey Collection are monumental sculpture by Harry Bertoia and LaGardo Tackett, an Isamu Noguchi Akari light sculpture, designs of George Nakashima and Carlo Scarpa, and ceramics from Toshiko Takaezu and Peter Voulkos.

Anchoring the Loughrey collection are six lots by Gio Ponti commissioned by the Ceccato family in the late 1940s: a wall unit and trumeau made in collaboration with Piero Fornasetti, a headboard and bedframe, a wall mirror, and a pair of chairs and nightstands made in collaboration with Paolo de Poli. The Ceccato family owned the Dulciora confectionary empire, and no expense was spared in outfitting their apartment on Milan’s Via Monferrato.




The trumeau alone represents a culmination of the finest artistry and craftsmanship available: constructed by master cabinetmaker Giordano Chiesa, Piero Fornasetti’s foliate decoration surrounds a porcelain figure by C. Werner for Hutschenreuther which stands above a hand- colored replica of the noted late-fifteenth-century printmaker Jacopo de’ Barbari’s map of Venice. Collectively, Simon Andrews of Andrews Art Advisory (formerly of Christie’s London)

“Peter Loughrey was a talented pioneer motivated by a restless enthusiasm, crucially driven by the willingness to communicate, to share and to discover,” writes Andrews in his essay accompanying the collection. He continues, “Peter, together with his wife and co-director Shannon, swiftly developed an interactive platform for what was evolving as an increasingly globalized tide of enthusiasts, dealers, curators and collectors. His auctions became a raison d’être, justification to what many of us were at the time tentatively yet willingly exploring. Here, in these auctions, post-war design was spot-lit center stage, and celebrated as a movement in its own right.”

LAMA is honored to bring the Peter Loughrey Collection to auction in the house that Loughrey himself built, and to carry on his legacy of making space for beautiful things to be seen and shared.

Design is a live auction that will take place on November 17th, 2022, at LA Modern Auctions beginning at 11 am pacific. The auction will accommodate advanced bids, telephone bidding, and live online bidding. The full selection of works will be on view at Los Angeles Modern Auctions from November 10th – 17th, 11 am to 4 pm Monday – Friday.