Boccioni Ex Machina

Originally a painter, Umberto Boccioni turned to sculpture only four years before his death, in 1916, at the age of 33. Along with the rest of his futurist cohort, Boccioni was obsessed with Italy’s delayed industrialization, and in his work he sought to capture the dynamics of speed and machinery. The result was a series of abstract sculptures that express the essence of movement, filling space with a sensation of forward advance. Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, the fourth and largest of these, was first unveiled at Galleria la Boétie, in Paris, and has been privately owned since 1975. It goes to auction next Monday at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale, where it is expected to sell for $3.8 to $4.5 million. Other highlights of the sale, on view at Christie’s this weekend, include René Magritte’s Le Sabbat (expected to sell for $8 to $12 million) and Pablo Picasso’s Femme dans un Fauteuil (expected to sell for $12 to $18 million). (christies.com) —Julia Vitale