As the child of a Milanese art collector, Laura Mattioli grew up surrounded by masterpieces, many created by Italian artists she knew personally. But it wasn't until Mattioli was confined to bed during a difficult pregnancy, immobilized for six months next to one of Giorgio Morandi's most celebrated still lifes, that her love of art took a deeper turn.

Mattioli, 64, eventually inherited the art collection of her father, the cotton magnate Gianni Mattioli. Since 1997 she has placed 25 paintings, including the Morandi still life, Bottles and Fruit Bowl, on long-term loan to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. In 2013 she founded the Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) in New York to promote awareness of 20th-century Italian art among Americans as well as to encourage international scholarship and research.

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Source: http://www.artnews.com/