Poster Power, Italian Style: "When Yale art history graduate Jim Lapides began collecting posters during the early 1990s, he focused on those produced in Italy between the end of the 19th century and the late 1930s.  At the time, the poster art of France and Britain was widely recognised for its collectability but Italy's attracted relatively few enthusiasts.  By 1994, Lapides had already acquired so many quality examples that he decided to turn his passion into a business and opened Boston's International Poster Gallery which now holds a stock of more than 10,000 vintage posters from countries around the world, covering subjects ranging from planes, trains and automobiles to opera, sport, music and film.  For this selling exhibition, however, Lapides has returned to his first love - the Italian poster art for which his gallery is now recognised as being the best in the world..."