Created in 1964, La Pantera stands as one of Mario Ceroli's most striking early works, demonstrating the Roman artist's distinctive approach to wood as both material and medium. The sculpture presents a prowling panther rendered in layered, cut pine boards against a field of deep hunter green, the warm grain of the natural wood providing an expressive texture that no painted surface could replicate. An arrow-shaped banner beneath the beast carries the text "Tel. 555555," a detail that injects a note of vernacular commercial culture directly into the formal vocabulary of the object, bridging the worlds of folk signage, Pop sensibility, and artisanal craft. The piece measures a commanding 100 by 200 by 21.5 centimeters, giving it a mural-like presence that rewards both close inspection of its carved detail and appreciation from a distance. Ceroli emerged from the Roman Arte Povera and Neo-Dada milieu of the early 1960s, and La Pantera reflects his sustained interest in the expressive and conceptual possibilities of raw, unrefined wood. Rather than concealing the material's natural character, he celebrates knots, grain, and the visible evidence of cutting and layering, allowing the construction process to remain legible within the finished work. The panther motif, simultaneously aggressive and decorative, evokes the visual language of roadside commercial signs and provincial craftsmanship, sources that Ceroli consistently mined for their directness and immediacy. The telephone number functions as a kind of ready-made element, grounding the sculpture in everyday life and suggesting the influence of American Pop Art, which was then beginning to circulate with considerable force in the Italian art world. Works from Ceroli's earliest period are now held in major institutional collections across Europe, and pieces dated to 1964 represent the formative moment in which his signature style fully crystallized. La Pantera occupies a particularly coherent place within that body of work, combining the artist's formal inventiveness with his characteristic wit and accessibility. For collectors with an interest in postwar Italian art, in the intersections between craft and conceptual practice, or in the broader transatlantic dialogue between European Arte Povera and American Pop, this work offers a rare opportunity to acquire a historically significant and visually compelling object from the very beginning of a major career.