The AlberT GAnAdo collecTion of books And MeliTensiA
and keep the paintings together. The ashtray would have had pride of place in that museum. But this is not going to happen now.”
“My grandmother was very attached to her husband. She was still basically in a relationship decades after he died. It’s only now that I can begin to understand, being 50, what her mindset was,” Vella Gera says. “For most of my life, I couldn’t understand what it was about; I could somehow fathom it intellectually, but now it has hit me hard on an emotional level too.”
The letters, which Vella Gera owns together with his brother, are very important, documenting the correspondence between the two lovebirds while Inglott was studying in Rome.
“I read all the letters in the last few months – they are quite fascinating to read. Through these, I noticed that it was my grandmother, his fiancée, who gave him some of the ideas behind the paintings and the drawings of the war refugees. When he was in Rome, he was already a very ill man, not going out much and almost bedridden,” Vella Gera concludes.
Besides work by Inglott, among which one must mention some engaging self-portraits, the Vella Gera collection boasts an important painting by Giorgio Preca, Mary Pitrè dancing (or Spanish Dancer), executed in those years just preceding the advent of Maltese modernism. One should also mention Willie Apap’s portrait of his fellow artist friend Inglott as another star of the auction.
According to Obelisk auctioneer Pierre Grech Pillow, those who attend the viewing days will be able to see Inglott’s actual palette and two albums of his sketch work; however, these three items will not be auctioned.
“The collection is intact. From the Vella Gera house, it travelled to Obelisk Auction Gallery; from the nails on which the paintings had previously hung, we transferred them to the hooks in our gallery,” the auctioneer remarked. “Having died young, it is very rare that works by him come up for auction, and they usually command hefty prices. So, this is a once-in-alifetime opportunity that collectors are able to bid on the most important of Inglott’s paintings. It will surely never happen again. We are proud that we have been entrusted with this auction.”
Besides the Vella Gera collection, other lots by important protagonists of Maltese 20th-century art will also be auctioned on Saturday, May 11. Works by Antoine Camilleri, Raymond Pitrè, Gabriel Caruana and Josef Kalleya, among others, will surely intrigue collectors to add to their holdings.
This auction, over eight days, includes also a day dedicated to the sale of the second part of the collection of Albert Ganado. The first part had included 146 lots of Melitensia and maps of Malta, collected over the years by the eminent pioneer in the field of cartography; this was auctioned on June 15, 2022.
Other entries include Maltese and European furniture, jewellery, silver, china, porcelain, religious art and old master paintings, so everyone’s fine tastes are catered for.
The viewing is at the Obelisk Auctions Gallery, Villa Drusilla, no.1, Mdina Road, Attard, from Friday, May 3 till Sunday, May 5, from 10am till 6pm as well as mornings of auction days from 9am till 1pm. Auction dates are from Monday, May 6 till Friday, May 10, starting at 4.30pm; Saturday, May 11 at 2.30pm; Monday, May 13 and Tuesday, May 14 at 4.30pm.
These pages are supported by Arts Council Malta.