  A census of massive galaxies at redshift increasingly higher than $z\sim$1
may provide strong constraints on the history of mass assembly and of star
formation. Here we report on the analysis of three galaxies selected in the
Hubble Deep Field South on the basis of their unusually red near-IR color
J-K$\ge$3. These objects result to be massive (M$_{star}\sim
10^{11}$M$_{\odot}$) galaxies at redshift 2.5$<$z$<$3 which cannot follow an
evolution significantly different from passive aging. Thus, their counterpart
can be found among the EROs (i.e., R-K>5) at 1$<$z$<$1.5, and among the local
massive old early-type galaxies at $z=0$. In order to find their counterpart
also at the intermediate redshift z$\sim$2, we present a new color selection
criterion (J-K$<$3 and I-H$>$4) on the basis of which we identified 4 massive
evolved galaxies at 1.5$<z<$2.5. We show an example of a passive evolution
scenario in which three massive galaxies at different redshift are apparently
those we expect from a massive galaxy fully assembled at z$\sim$3 which evolves
passively in time down to $z=0$.
