Alitalia auctions off paintings to pay debt

ROME: Nearly 200 paintings and drawings by contemporary Italian artists have been auctioned off to help pay creditors of troubled Alitalia airline.

The Finarte auction house said Thursday the sale fetched euro1.2 million ($1.77 million).

The artwork was among Alitalia assets taken over by a bankruptcy administrator, who has been selling them off to pay off some of the airline's debts. A smaller version of the money-losing carrier launched last January after a group of Italian investors merged it with smaller airline Air One.

Georgia Bava of Finarte said the pieces had originally been displayed on Alitalia's fleet. Recently, they were in storage.

An abstract painting by Lucio Fontana fetched the highest price, euro48,000.