Willy Rizzo

(Italian, 1928–2013)

Willy Rizzo was an Italian photographer and furniture designer known for his portraits of princes, princesses, playboys, and starlets in the 1950s and 60s. Born on October 22, 1928 in Naples, Italy, he began shooting portraits at the age of 12 and in 1948, he was hired by Paris Match magazine, for whom he photographed the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Fred Astaire, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso, among others. He went on to launch a furniture line in Rome in 1966, inspired by Modernists such as Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. His inaugural collection included steel-banded travertine dining tables and bronze table lamps, and today many of his pieces are exhibited in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He became such a famous chronicler of the glamorous “jet set” of the 1950s, Rizzo was memorably immortalized as the paparazzo Walter Rizotto in Tintin creator Herge’s The Castafiore Emerald in 1963. He died on February 25, 2013 in Paris, France.

Willy Rizzo Artworks

Willy Rizzo (1,003 results)
Occasional tables (pair), 1970

Willy Rizzo

Occasional tables (pair), 1970

Sale Date: June 23, 2007

Auction Closed

Coffee table, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Coffee table, 1970

Sale Date: June 23, 2007

Auction Closed

Table basse, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Table basse, 1970

Sale Date: June 15, 2007

Auction Closed

Grande table de salle à manger, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Grande table de salle à manger, 1970

Sale Date: June 15, 2007

Auction Closed

Grande table basse

Willy Rizzo

Grande table basse

Sale Date: June 15, 2007

Auction Closed

Table lamps (pair), 1970

Willy Rizzo

Table lamps (pair), 1970

Sale Date: May 22, 2007

Auction Closed

Occasional table, 1970

Attributed to Willy Rizzo

Occasional table, 1970

Sale Date: April 25, 2007

Auction Closed

Table, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Table, 1970

Sale Date: March 31, 2007

Auction Closed

Table basse, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Table basse, 1970

Sale Date: March 27, 2007

Auction Closed

Buffet bar, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Buffet bar, 1970

Sale Date: May 18, 2006

Auction Closed

Buffet bas, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Buffet bas, 1970

Sale Date: May 18, 2006

Auction Closed

T.R.G. coffee table, 1970–1979

Willy Rizzo

T.R.G. coffee table, 1970–1979

Sale Date: February 14, 2007

Auction Closed

Console with two levels

Willy Rizzo

Console with two levels

Sale Date: November 23, 2006

Auction Closed

Table basse T.R.G., 1970

Willy Rizzo

Table basse T.R.G., 1970

Sale Date: December 9, 2004

Auction Closed

Table vasque, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Table vasque, 1970

Sale Date: October 27, 2004

Auction Closed

Meuble bas, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Meuble bas, 1970

Sale Date: June 29, 2006

Auction Closed

Table basse carrée, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Table basse carrée, 1970

Sale Date: June 29, 2006

Auction Closed

Console, 1970–1979

Willy Rizzo

Console, 1970–1979

Sale Date: March 20, 2005

Auction Closed

Coffee tables (Pair), 1970–1979

Willy Rizzo

Coffee tables (Pair), 1970–1979

Sale Date: March 20, 2005

Auction Closed

Coffee table, 1970

Willy Rizzo

Coffee table, 1970

Sale Date: September 25, 2005

Auction Closed

Dali, 1949

Willy Rizzo

Dali, 1949

Sale Date: December 21, 2006

Auction Closed

Jean Cocteau, 1955

Willy Rizzo

Jean Cocteau, 1955

Sale Date: December 21, 2006

Auction Closed

Canapé

Willy Rizzo

Canapé

Sale Date: November 9, 2006

Auction Closed

Grande table de salle à manger

Willy Rizzo

Grande table de salle à manger

Sale Date: December 15, 2006

Auction Closed