Italian postwar art is finding institutional and commercial patrons in the U.S., as well. After the recent Italian sale at Christie’s in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York scooped up a major work — a bridge made of braided steel wool by the Arte Povera artist Pino Pascali — that had failed to reach its reserve. Through March 21 the Gagosian branch on West 24th Street, in New York, is hosting the first U.S. retrospective of Manzoni’s work, curated by Germano Celant. It is a mixture of pieces for sale and loans from museums and private collections. Three of the latter come from the collection of Howard and Cindy Rachofsky, in Dallas. Originally attracted by the groundbreaking approach of Fontana, Howard Rachofsky has been collecting Italian postwar art for more than a decade, starting long before it hit the radar of most American collectors and museums. Rachofsky believes that investors ignored Italian art for so long because it is extremely conceptual. "As an aesthetic experience," he explains, "it is not as seductive to people who are not immersed in the history of art. It’s a little slower burn, with a very few exceptions." He feels that much of the work is still affordable, although prices for certain artists have risen substantially over the past three years. In fact, he lost out last year on a Fontana and a Manzoni in the Sotheby’s sales of the Helga and Walther Lauffs collection because "we bid at very fair levels, and they went for significantly more. We weren’t even in contention."

How to explain the recent international fervor for Italian artists? Rachofsky suggests that collectors searching for underexploited talent have discovered them. It could also be that enough time has passed to appreciate them. "Thirty to 40 years after the death of an artist is the right distance to start taking his work into consideration," says Vettese, who sees both Burri and Fontana as the equivalent of Jackson Pollock in terms of importance, if not market hype. "If you can’t buy Pollock anymore, you start buying Fontana."

Of course, Italians have been avid collectors for a very long time, from the industrialists Gianni Agnelli and Giuseppe Panza di Biumo to upper-middle-class families who tend to acquire for pleasure rather than potential gain. Alison Gingeras mentions an elderly couple she met in Milan who bought directly from Fontana’s studio and never sold a thing. "There’s not this kind of speculation or flipping that you have with American postwar art," she says.

These days, many Italians are watching their family holdings soar in value. They also have an eye on the calendar: Another reason some artists are now commanding huge prices may be a strict Italian law, put into effect in 1939 to protect the country’s patrimony, stating that if a work is more than 50 years old, the government must grant permission before it can be sold or taken abroad. "We can’t send our best pieces overseas," complains Christie’s Mariolina Bassetti. "This has always been a problem, and every year it gets worse." "Italy Rebooted" originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction''s February 2009 Table of Contents.