Anyone who spent much time in the West Village in the last decade probably walked by the storefront at 30 West 12th Street, and wondered at its display of sun-faded books with Italian titles gathering dust against a backdrop of drawn curtains.

In the fast-morphing landscape of downtown Manhattan, the window marked "S.F. VANNI" in delicate gold lettering has remained strangely static since 2004, a mysterious, time-stopped monument to a vanished New York.

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Source: http://blogs.artinfo.com/