T his May, Sotheby’s will offer works from the collection of Adele and Enrico Donati, two leading figures in New York’s creative circles. A highly important presence within the Surrealist milieu, Enrico Donati, often referred to as “the last Surrealist”, was at once an artist and trusted confidant to many of the movement’s leading figures, counting Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and André Breton among his close friends. Alongside him was his wife Adele Donati, a designer and artist, who viewed the collection with a discerning eye, informed by her work across advertising and fashion.

The collection, which was rarely exhibited publicly, reflects the breadth of Enrico’s close friendships and influences. It is led by Pablo Picasso’s Arlequin (Buste), est. in the region of $40m, one of the artist’s most significant early Cubist portraits, created just two years after Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. It is among the most important works from this decisive moment to appear at auction in recent decades.

Alongside Arlequin (Buste) is Wassily Kandinsky’s vibrant Rote Tiefe (Red Depth) (est. $12 – 18m), a dynamic example of the artist at the height of his Bauhaus era. There is also Yves Tanguy’s Aux Aguets le jour, gifted by Tanguy to Donati (est. $800,000 – 1.2m), and Alexander Calder’s, Untitled, given to Donati in exchange for one of his drawings (est. $700,000 – 1m). These works, along with additional pieces from the Donati collection, will be offered across Sotheby’s marquee sales this May, including the Modern Evening and Modern and Contemporary Day sales.

Like so many of his contemporaries, Donati was drawn to the art and cultures of Africa and Oceania, and the Americas, building a collection with the same passion he brought to modern European art. Sotheby’s will also offer 14 pieces from the Donati collection, including a large Yup’ik or Inupiaq Shaman’s Mask from Alaska and an exceptionally fine Bete-Guro Mask from the collection of Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield in the 1930s, during the Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas auction on 18 June 2026.

Heralded as one of the last members of the Surrealist movement, Italian American Enrico Donati’s career began in the 1930s in Paris, where he immersed himself in the city's cultural avant-garde and he first encountered the work of the Surrealists. However, in 1939, with the threat of war rising in Europe, Donati relocated with his young family to New York, joining the wave of European artists and intellectuals fleeing the continent. In 1942 he held his first solo exhibition in the city at the New School for Social Research. It was seen by André Breton, who immediately proclaimed him to be a Surrealist, and welcomed Donati into the movement.

Thereafter Donati became enmeshed with the close circle of European émigré artists and writers in New York, including Marcel Duchamp and Yves Tanguy, contributing to the city’s vibrant artistic life during the war years. He and other artists would meet for daily lunches at Larre’s on 56th Street and Sixth Avenue. These convivial gatherings became a space for exchanging ideas, and were often followed by excursions to nearby antique shops to look for ‘found’ or ‘surreal’ objects.

As he developed his own practice, he worked together with his artist friends on collaborations and exhibitions while amassing a much-cherished collection of his own - buying the work of artists he loved, but also acquiring pieces through his friendships - via exchanges, gifts, or acts of support - or sometimes just buying a painting simply to help out a friend.

Insatiably curious, Donati reinvented his style multiple times over his six-decade career, oscillating between the influences of Surrealism, Constructivism and Abstract Expressionism, yet always maintaining a uniquely Surrealist style. In 1947, he returned to Paris as one of the organisers of the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, where three of his works were included.

In 1961, he had a major retrospective at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and often took part in group exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad. Today his works are held in important museum collections, including at The Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American art in New York.

Adele Schmidt Donati’s life was closely intertwined with that of Enrico Donati, beginning with their meeting in the early 1950s when, as a young art student and emerging creative professional, she was encouraged to show her paintings to him. He was immediately captivated, and after a long courtship they married in 1965.

Though Donati was already an established Surrealist artist, Adele brought her own artistic training and sharp visual sensibility to their shared world. She built a successful career in New York as a designer and later as Creative Director at the French perfume house Houbigant, while remaining deeply engaged with art. Adele was also a passionate philanthropist, and animal rights advocate, serving on the board of The Fund For Animals and The Humane Society Legislative Fund.

Throughout their life together, Adele was a constant supportive presence for Enrico, and they formed a partnership of mutual inspiration led by their independent creative pursuits. After his death in 2008, she continued to oversee his legacy until her own passing in 2025.