This is the original drawing for the iconic Murmansk centrepiece which is perhaps the best known piece of metalwork associated with the Memphis design group. It was created by its charismatic leader, Ettore Sottsass Jr., for the second Memphis collection - a group of objects that saw the collective moving from the limited repertoire of the original 1981 collection which consisted of laminated furniture and metal lamps, into the more luxurious materials and small scale domestic wares.

Unusually large in scale for Memphis design rendering, the drawing is charmingly expressive - not a dimensioned preparatory study, but rather an evocation of the animated quality that Sottsass sought to capture in the finished object. According to Keith Johnson of Urban Architecture, the drawing narrowly escaped destruction:

'The drawing shows that it was once folded into four. Upon asking Ettore about this at our NYC "TOTEM" exhibition in 1996, he advised me that he almost lost it. It was inadvertently forgotten in the pocket of his tweed jacket that he sent to the dry-cleaners [lavasecco] in Milano, who set it aside for him. When he retrieved the coat they told him they found a "document" in his pocket, and saved it for him. So close, indeed!'