The Poet of Light. Interview with Lighting Designer Davide Groppi

Il poeta della luce. Intervista al lighting designer Davide Groppi

Lighting designer Davide Groppi (born 1963 in Piacenza) is the subject of a rare retrospective exhibition titled "Un'ora di luce" (An Hour of Light), on view until May 26 at the Volumnia gallery in Piacenza, curated by Marco Sammicheli. The show, held in a deconsecrated late-16th-century church, traces Groppi's nearly 40-year career through products, prototypes, and personal artistic research, including his iconic lamp "Nulla" (2010), which won the first of his three Compasso d'Oro awards. In an interview, Groppi discusses the exhibition's themes of lightness, cosmic references, and his philosophy of subtraction in design.

Jewish Heirs File Suit in French Court Over Ownership of Pissarro Painting

jewish heirs file suite french court met ownership pissarro painting 1234771992

Seven heirs of the late department store magnate and art collector Max Julius Braunthal have filed a lawsuit in a French court, seeking to nullify the 1941 sale of Camille Pissarro's painting 'Haystacks, Morning, Eragny' (1899). They argue the sale was made under duress during the Nazi occupation of France. The painting is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which maintains Braunthal received fair market value.

chinese vase sale cancelled french court 1234770123

A French court ordered Galerie Kraemer in Paris to return €2.8 million ($3.25 million) to collector Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani over a Chinese vase, citing serious doubts about the 18th-century dating of its gilded bronze mounts. The vase, which sold for €815 in Brazil 20 years ago, passed through a Paris flea market and three antique dealers before Laurent Kraemer purchased it for €180,000. Sheikh Hamad bought the vase in 2012 but later had it examined after Galerie Kraemer faced multiple fake furniture cases. Expert Sébastien Evain deemed the dating highly improbable, while gallery-commissioned experts Gilles Perrault and Guy Kalfon, who only saw photographs, defended the 18th-century attribution. The court annulled the sale, and the gallery plans to appeal.