# Salvatore Fiume artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/salvatore-fiume/
Profile generated: 2026-05-04T19:55:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1915-10-23
- Death date: 1997-06-03
- Nationality: Italian
- Common media: painting, sculpture, drawing, design

## About Salvatore Fiume

Salvatore Fiume (1915–1997) was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, writer, and stage designer born in Comiso, Sicily. Active across multiple disciplines, Fiume produced paintings, sculptures, drawings, and designs exploring figurative subjects including nudes, still lifes, and animal imagery. His work is held by major international institutions, among them the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the Vatican Museums, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan. Fiume’s cross-disciplinary practice—spanning fine art, architecture, and theatrical design—gives his output unusual breadth, and collectors most frequently encounter his paintings and sculptural works at auction. He died in Canzo, Italy, in 1997.

## Common works and media

Fiume’s auction and museum record includes oil paintings on canvas and panel, often depicting figurative, nude, and still-life subjects; sculptures in bronze and other materials; drawings and works on paper; and stage and architectural designs. Collectors may also encounter prints and multiples. The breadth of his practice means that attribution, medium verification, and dating are important steps in any appraisal.

## Market and appraisal context

Salvatore Fiume has a well-established and active secondary market, with 581 recorded auction lots spanning from October 2001 to April 2026. Of those, 332 carry a realized price. The market is heavily concentrated in Italian auction houses—ArtLaRosa, Benedetto Trionfante, Felima Art, Pananti, Casa d'Aste Babuino, Mediartrade, Finarte, Art-Rite, Gonnelli, and Picenum are the top ten by volume—reflecting the artist's domestic collector base. Liquidity is steady: 75 lots appeared in the most recent 12-month window versus 77 in the prior period, indicating consistent supply and demand. Price dispersion is wide (€5–€32,400), with a median of €300 and a 75th percentile of €2,300, meaning most works trade in the low hundreds of euros while significant paintings on panel or canvas reach into the thousands. The strongest recent prices include an oil on faesite titled "Odalisca" at €5,800 (Benedetto Trionfante, Dec 2025), an oil on masonite at €3,200 (same house, same sale), and "Isola di pietra" at €3,000 (Felima Art, Feb 2026). Prints, screenprints on canvas, chromolithographs, and engravings cluster below €500. The sole non-EUR result was an oil on masonite at $1,000 through Millea Bros (US, Dec 2025), confirming some transatlantic reach but limited international volume.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Salvatore Fiume has a well-established and active secondary market, with 581 recorded auction lots spanning from October 2001 to April 2026. Of those, 332 carry a realized price. The market is heavily concentrated in Italian auction houses—ArtLaRosa, Benedetto Trionfante, Felima Art, Pananti, Casa d'Aste Babuino, Mediartrade, Finarte, Art-Rite, Gonnelli, and Picenum are the top ten by volume—reflecting the artist's domestic collector base. Liquidity is steady: 75 lots appeared in the most recent 12-month window versus 77 in the prior period, indicating consistent supply and demand. Price dispersion is wide (€5–€32,400), with a median of €300 and a 75th percentile of €2,300, meaning most works trade in the low hundreds of euros while significant paintings on panel or canvas reach into the thousands. The strongest recent prices include an oil on faesite titled "Odalisca" at €5,800 (Benedetto Trionfante, Dec 2025), an oil on masonite at €3,200 (same house, same sale), and "Isola di pietra" at €3,000 (Felima Art, Feb 2026). Prints, screenprints on canvas, chromolithographs, and engravings cluster below €500. The sole non-EUR result was an oil on masonite at $1,000 through Millea Bros (US, Dec 2025), confirming some transatlantic reach but limited international volume.

### Appraisal notes

An Appraisily appraisal for a Salvatore Fiume work would cross-reference the Appraisily auction record index (581 lots, 332 priced) against the specific piece's medium, support, dimensions, signature, condition, and provenance. The dataset shows that medium and support are the strongest price predictors: oils on canvas, panel, masonite, or faesite command substantially more than screenprints on canvas, chromolithographs, or color engravings. Dimensions matter because large-format paintings are scarcer and trade higher. Provenance from an Italian house (Finarte, Benedetto Trionfante, Gonnelli) adds contextual comparability. The appraiser should verify whether a work is a unique painting, a numbered print multiple, or a decorative/reproductive chromolithograph on canvas—these categories have very different value tiers within Fiume's output. Edition details (number, total run) are essential for prints and multiples, which the source record titles reference but do not enumerate.

### Valuation factors

- Medium and support: oils on canvas, panel, masonite, or faesite trade significantly higher than screenprints, chromolithographs, or engravings
- Subject matter: figurative compositions, odalisques, and titled narrative works (e.g. 'Isola di pietra,' 'African Mona Lisa') tend to outperform untitled or generic lots
- Dimensions and scale: larger paintings are rarer and priced accordingly
- Condition: given the artist's death in 1997, works span several decades and condition varies widely
- Provenance and house: works passing through established Italian houses (Finarte, Benedetto Trionfante, Gonnelli) offer stronger comparability anchors
- Attribution verification: Fiume's large and diverse output (painting, sculpture, prints, stage design, decorative multiples) makes medium confirmation critical
- Edition details for prints and multiples: edition size and numbering are key price determinants not captured in lot titles alone
- Institutional recognition: holdings at MoMA, Hermitage, Vatican Museums, and Pushkin Museum support long-term name recognition and collector confidence

### Collector notes

- The Fiume market is liquid but bifurcated. Works appear at auction frequently—roughly 6–7 lots per month—so buyers should be patient and selective. The median realized price of €300 means that prints, multiples, and smaller works on paper are accessible entry points. Collectors seeking investment-grade pieces should focus on unique oils on canvas or panel with strong subject matter (figurative, odalisque, narrative compositions), where prices reach €3,000–€6,000 and the top recorded price is €32,400. Be cautious with chromolithographs and screenprints on canvas described as paintings—these are decorative multiples, not unique works, and trade at a fraction of oil-on-canvas prices. The market is overwhelmingly EUR-denominated and Italian-house-based, so international buyers should factor in buyer's premiums, currency conversion, and shipping. Sellers should ensure medium and support are clearly documented and, where possible, obtain a condition report to maximize competitive bidding.

### Market caveats

- The Appraisily auction record index shows 581 lots, which is fewer than the 758 previously cited in the artist profile; this may reflect deduplication or a different query window. Both figures indicate substantial volume.
- Lot titles are the primary source for medium identification; some lots lack source URLs, so individual lot verification is recommended before citing specific prices.
- The dataset does not include buyer's premiums, estimates, or reserve information—realized prices may differ from hammer prices.
- No edition sizes, print run totals, or catalogue raisonné references are available in the source pack, limiting precision for prints and multiples.
- All top-ten auction houses are Italian, and nearly all prices are in EUR; international comparables are sparse (one USD lot from a US house in the recent sample).
- Several recent lots (e.g. 'African Mona Lisa,' 'Maternity,' 'Alma Mater,' 'The Sultan's Flower,' 'Reclining Nude Woman') show null realized prices, indicating either unsold lots or results not yet reported.

### Market evidence sources

- undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/salvatore-fiume/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-salvatore-fiume-comiso-1915-milano-1997-african-mona-lisa-1974-138-c-262b94a5f8
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-salvatore-fiume-otto-novelle-di-verga-73-c-9146b289b4
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-salvatore-fiume-odalisca-62-c-1822df505b
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-salvatore-fiume-centauri-248-c-e0d0343391
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-salvatore-fiume-1915-1997-cavalcata-93-c-4f1bbabe00
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-salvatore-fiume-comiso-1915-milan-1997-odalisque-143-c-00385aef98

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from museum records, library authority files, and biographical sources with available auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. For Salvatore Fiume, identity data is grounded in the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, VIAF, Wikidata, and MoMA collection records. Market context draws on the Appraisily auction database and published institutional holdings.

## Sources

- RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/115181
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q966853
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/96427895/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Fiume
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/1904
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500100792
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82222530