Enrico Donati: The Last Surrealist’s Treasures Head to Auction in a Poignant Farewell to a 20th-Century IconBy Darren SmithApril 28, 2026
By Darren Smith, Arts Reporter
April 28, 2026
NEW YORK — Nearly two decades after his death, the intimate world of Enrico Donati — the Italian-born painter revered as the “last Surrealist” — is coming alive once more. Sotheby’s has announced “A Night in May: The Collection of Adele & Enrico Donati,” a landmark series of sales this May featuring masterpieces collected through decades of friendship with giants like Pablo Picasso, André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, and Max Ernst.
The auctions, spanning Modern Evening, Day, Contemporary, and tribal art sales, carry a high estimate exceeding $80 million. Leading the charge is Picasso’s rare 1909 Cubist portrait Arlequin (Buste), estimated at around $40 million — a work that embodies the personal bonds that defined Donati’s life.
Born in Milan in 1909, Donati arrived in the United States in 1934 after studying economics in Pavia. He quickly immersed himself in New York’s avant-garde scene, studying at the Art Students League and forging connections that placed him at the heart of Surrealism’s American exile during World War II. André Breton, the movement’s pope, famously declared of Donati’s paintings: “I love the paintings of Enrico Donati like I love a night in May.” That poetic line now titles the auction, evoking both romance and the nocturnal mysteries of Surrealist dreamscapes.
Donati was no mere follower. His own works evolved from early biomorphic abstractions — evoking cosmic forces, fossils, and inner landscapes — to textured “Moonscape” series blending oil, sand, and gesso. He exhibited alongside Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, and others, while maintaining a studio life intertwined with intellectual exchange. Friends gifted or traded works freely: a Wassily Kandinsky Rote Tiefe (Red Depth) (1925), a Alexander Calder mobile exchanged for a drawing, and pieces by Joan Miró and Henry Moore all entered the Donati home on Central Park South.
His wife, Adele Donati (née Schmidt), a talented designer and creative director at the French perfume house Houbigant, brought her refined eye to the collection. Together, they built not just an art hoard but a salon-like existence bridging European modernism and American innovation. Adele championed animal rights and philanthropy, sustaining Enrico’s legacy until her passing in 2025. The sale follows her death, releasing works long held privately.
Beyond blue-chip moderns, the collection includes ethnographic treasures — masks and sculptures from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas — reflecting Donati’s fascination with primal forms that echoed Surrealist interests in the subconscious and “primitive” art. Fourteen such pieces will feature in Sotheby’s June tribal art auction.
Donati’s story is one of remarkable longevity and adaptation. He outlived most Surrealist peers, dying in 2008 at 99 after a taxi accident. In later decades, he explored Spatialism and abstraction while running a successful perfume business — a fitting venture for an artist attuned to sensory experience. His works reside in major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and National Gallery of Art, yet he remained something of an insider’s artist: respected, collected, but never fully mainstream.
The impending Sotheby’s sales — with previews in Hong Kong, London, and New York — arrive at a moment when the market hungers for fresh, provenance-rich material from trusted private sources. Experts view the Donati trove as a time capsule of mid-century New York’s fertile creative melting pot. “These weren’t investment pieces bought at auction,” one advisor noted. “They were gifts from friends, chosen with love and lived with daily.”
As gavel falls in May, collectors will compete not just for Picassos and Kandinskys but for a slice of Enrico Donati’s world — a bridge between old Europe’s turmoil and America’s postwar artistic boom. In an era of fleeting digital trends, Donati’s emphasis on texture, mystery, and human connection feels refreshingly enduring.
Donati once said his art sought the “unplanned and accidental.” This auction, born of loss yet brimming with discovery, perfectly captures that spirit.
Don’t miss your chance to experience this historic collection. Visit Sotheby’s official sale page for exhibition dates, lot details, and bidding information. Art enthusiasts should also explore Artnet’s coverage for deeper insights and register for previews to witness these masterpieces in person before they scatter to new homes. The past awaits rediscovery — seize the moment.
Darren Smith is an arts journalist, practicing artist, and tattooist with 26+ years of experience across traditional, digital, and body art practices. He covers the intersections of craft, culture, and collecting for ArtChain News.
