For Sotheby’s, this collection coming to auction is something of an event.

Assembled over several decades, it brings together some 30 works on paper from the Futurist period.

They have often been featured in exhibitions on this art movement, such as “Le Futurisme à Paris” at the French capital’s Centre Pompidou in 2008.

Among them is the collage “Zang Tumb Tuuum” by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The Italian artist and poet made this creation in 1915, from fragments of his book of the same name.

These cut-out forms express the power of war machines. “Marinetti chose a title that mimes a mechanical noise: zang for the firing of an artillery shell, tumb for its explosion, and tuuum for the resulting echo,” wrote J.T. Schnapp on this subject.

This is the first time since its creation that “Zang Tumb Tuuum” has appeared at auction.

It is estimated at between €75,000 and €100,000. Other works by Marinetti will also go under the hammer during the sale, titled “Zang Tumb Tuuum: la révolution futuriste.”

They all illustrate his desire to change the world. Take “Manicure. Faire les ongles à l’Italie” [Manucure. Doing Italy’s Nails], estimated at €20,000 to €30,000.

Although this work takes the appearance of mundane hygiene advice, it is, in fact, a radical rejection of the past.

Up to €12,000 for a Le Figaro front page

One of the most coveted pieces in the sale is the front page of the Le Figaro newspaper dedicated to Marinetti’s “Manifesto of Futurism.”

In it, the Italian artist called for the demolition of museums in order to make a clean sweep of the past, and glorified modernity, speed, war and the machine.

Its publication in Le Figaro was the first step in the international propagation of the Futurist movement. This historical document is estimated to fetch between €8,000 and €12,000.

All these works will be offered for auction during the “Zang Tumb Tuuum: la révolution futuriste” sale, held from Nov 30 to Dec 7 on the Sotheby’s website.