The opening historical section features a rare embroidered cloth album containing approximately 40 photographs by Sanshichiro Yamamoto, taken between 1890 and 1910 and depicting landscapes and scenes of social life in Japan and China at the turn of the century.

Among the most significant lots is Horst P. Horst’s refined image Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn with Turban, Vogue (1940), printed in 1987, a precious silver gelatin print signed by the photographer and originating from the historic Milan-based publishing house Idea Books.

The timeless appeal of fashion photography is complemented by Gian Paolo Barbieri’s elegant portrait of Audrey Hepburn, taken in Rome in 1969 and presented in a numbered edition of only ten prints, produced in 1993 when the artist began his collaboration with Milan’s Photology Gallery.

The journey continues with some of the most celebrated portraits of the twentieth century. Among them is Yousuf Karsh’s powerful Ernest Hemingway, from New York’s Lumina Fine Photography & Art gallery, an exemplary demonstration of the Canadian photographer’s ability to capture the personality of his subjects.

Of extraordinary historical importance is Robert Capa’s photograph La Tondue de Chartres, taken on August 16, 1944. This iconic image symbolizes the purge of collaborators of the Nazi occupiers by the Resistance during the Liberation of France. The shaven-headed woman, Simone Touseau, holding her child in front of a hostile crowd, has become one of the most dramatic symbols of twentieth-century war reportage.

The modern metropolis emerges through the vision of Berenice Abbott, represented by the iconic New York at Night (1932), one of the images that best captures the fascination and dynamism of the American city during the interwar period.

Attention then shifts to Italy through a number of significant vintage works by Gianni Berengo Gardin, dedicated to Venice in the early 1960s, reflecting the extraordinary narrative sensitivity that made him one of the leading figures of European humanist photography.

Also of great interest are two photographs by Mario Giacomelli from the celebrated series Io non ho mani che mi accarezzino il volto (I Have No Hands That Caress My Face), one of the most renowned bodies of work in post-war Italian photography.

The catalogue also evokes the atmosphere of Milan in the 1960s through Metropolitana in bianco e nero (Subway in Black and White) by Carlo Orsi, while the dialogue between photography and contemporary art finds perfect expression in Ugo Mulas’s 1964 portrait of Lucio Fontana.

Accompanied by certification from the Ugo Mulas Archive, the work documents the friendship and profound mutual respect between the photographer and the Argentine-born artist, a central figure in Milan’s post-war cultural scene.

The catalogue further opens to leading figures of international culture and art with Nino Lo Duca’s portrait of Salvador Dalí, photographed at the Figueres Museum in 1974, an image that perfectly conveys the theatricality and charisma of the Surrealist master.

Contemporary photography is represented by leading artists such as Ryan McGinley, featured with the works Tim With Cigarette and Dash Bombing (a print of the latter is held in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City).

Particularly noteworthy is the presence of Albert Watson, one of the world’s most celebrated fashion and portrait photographers, with Sebastian in Issey Miyake, New York City (1989), issued in a limited edition of ten, alongside a celebrated colour Polaroid print depicting Kate Moss in the early 1990s.

Giovanni Gastel, a leading figure in contemporary Italian photography and currently the subject of the exhibition Rewind at Palazzo Citterio, is represented in the catalogue by the striking photograph Glamour, Alejandra Alonso, previously exhibited in My Beautiful Ladies at Galleria Forni in Bologna and accompanied by a certificate signed by the artist.

Bringing the journey to a symbolic close are two works by Peter Beard, created in 1997 using proof prints, collage, and hand-applied interventions for the volume Oltre la fine del mondo (Beyond the End of the World), published in conjunction with the exhibition held in the Sala delle Cariatidi at Palazzo Reale in Milan.

Coming directly from the artist’s studio, the work represents a rare example of the multidisciplinary language that made Beard one of the most original figures on the international art scene.