Jean Dubuffet's Autograph Inscription to Milena Milani in 'Lo Scrittoio' (1960)

A first edition copy of Giuseppe Raimondi's Lo Scrittoio (Il Saggiatore, 1960) stands out for an autograph inscription by Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), master of Art Brut and leading figure of the European post-war avant-garde. The inscription, dated 27 August 1960 in Vence and addressed to Milena Milani, Milanese writer and collector, documents a personal encounter between the French artist and one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century Italian collecting. The dedication, written in blue ink, reads: "reçu en cadeau inutilisable de Raimondi qui écrit dans une langue que je déplore de ne pas comprendre et offert en misérable cadeau à la belle et charmante Milena Milani lors de sa gracieuse visite à Vence le samedi 27 août 1960 - Jean Dubuffet". Dubuffet's cutting irony, the reference to the gift received from Raimondi, and the gallant tribute to Milani transform this volume into a historical document of rare eloquence.

Bibliographic notes

Giuseppe Raimondi (1898-1985), Bolognese art critic and writer, published Lo Scrittoio with Il Saggiatore in 1960. The publishing house, founded by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in 1958 and directed by Alberto Mondadori, represented the most advanced Italian intellectual publishing, with a catalogue ranging from philosophy to art criticism. Raimondi, a respected figure in the literary landscape, cultivated refined prose that interwove personal memory and aesthetic reflection. The volume belongs to the Italian art literature tradition, a genre that enjoyed a particularly fertile season in the 1960s. The first edition, published with an illustrated dust jacket, is now sought after by collectors of twentieth-century literature, but copies with autograph inscriptions by international artists are virtually non-existent on the market.

Provenance and condition

The Milani-Cardazzo provenance confers exceptional pedigree upon this copy. Milena Milani (1917-2013), writer, art critic and collector, was the wife of Carlo Cardazzo, founder of Galleria del Cavallino in Venice (1942) and Galleria del Naviglio in Milan (1946). Through these two galleries passed works by Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, Afro Basaldella and the principal exponents of the École de Paris. Milani frequented Paris assiduously and maintained personal relationships with French artists, critics and collectors. The meeting with Dubuffet in Vence on 27 August 1960 occurred at a crucial moment: the artist was working intensively on the Texturologies series (1957-1959) and the first Matériologies (1959-1960), works that marked a turn towards materic surfaces and earthy chromaticism. The dedication documents not only a private encounter but the dense network of cultural relations linking Italy and France during the years of the economic boom.

Condition is consistent with age and use: dust jacket with wear to edges, foxing to internal paper, but volume intact and complete. The autograph inscription is perfectly legible, stable blue ink without smudging. Dubuffet's irony – the "unusable gift" received from Raimondi, the "miserable gift" offered to Milani – reveals the artist's caustic character and his critical position towards official culture.

Market value

The BookOracle valuation places this copy in the €1,200-2,200 range, with a high rarity index (82/100). The market for Jean Dubuffet autographs on books is segmented: generic dedications on exhibition catalogues range between €300 and €600, whilst extended and dated inscriptions, especially if addressed to documented historical figures, easily reach €1,500-3,000. The Milani-Cardazzo provenance, verifiable through critical literature and the archives of the Venetian and Milanese galleries, adds a significant premium. Recent comparables include a Dubuffet dedication to Michel Tapié on a catalogue (Drouot, 2022: €1,800) and an inscription to Jean Paulhan on a poetry volume (Christie's Paris, 2021: €2,400). The rarity of Dubuffet dedications on Italian books, combined with documentation of a personal meeting in Vence, justifies the higher estimate. The market for documentary collecting related to Art Brut and the post-war Parisian scene remains solid, supported by museum institutions and an international audience.

Why it matters

This copy transcends bibliographic value to become historical document. Dubuffet's dedication to Milena Milani illuminates Franco-Italian cultural relations at a moment of extraordinary vitality: the 1960s witnessed the international affirmation of Italian Informel, the spread of Art Brut, the dialogue between Venetian, Milanese and Parisian galleries. Milani, through her husband's galleries and her own critical activity, was a fundamental mediator of this exchange. Dubuffet, for his part, represented the antithesis of academic culture: his anti-aesthetic poetics, rejection of tradition, interest in the art of children and the mentally ill challenged conventions. The irony of the dedication – the book in an incomprehensible language, the "miserable" gift – reflects this iconoclastic position. For collectors of artistic autographs, the history of Italian collecting or twentieth-century art literature, this volume offers rare and stratified testimony: an object that intersects publishing, criticism, visual art and personal memory, marking a point of intersection between different but profoundly connected cultural worlds.