Gino Sarfatti

Gino Sarfatti was born in Venice in 1912 into a wealthy family. He moved to Genoa and then enrolled in the faculty of Aereonaval Engineering, failing to complete his studies because of the sanctions imposed on Italy by the League of Nations with the 1935 naval blockade. He thus moved to Milan where he founded Arteluce in 1939 with some members of the Milanese society, soon becoming its general manager. In 1943 the bombing of Milan forced the family to flee to Switzerland, while Arteluce remained active, within permitted limits, with Vittoriano Viganò as director. Upon the artist's return to Italy, he founded ArCon "Arredamento Contemporaneo" in Rome in 1950, a retailer of top brands in the design world. In 1954 he won the Compasso d'Oro with Model 559, while he won the Gran Prix at the Milan Triennale for his Models 1063 and 1065. At the end of 1973 Sarfatti decided to sell Arteluce to Flos, thus ending his working career. He died in Gravedona in 1985.