The Magic Of Mur iNg o

Jewish collectors Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu bring
Venetian glass exhibition to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Giorgio Vigna,
Venini S.p.A.,
"Fuochi
d'acqua,"
2002.

LYNNE KONSTANTIN

Special to the Jewish News

all it serendipity, call it beshert (meant to
be), call it a fluke, as Nancy Olnick does;
it was something like that that changed
the born-and-bred New Yorker's life.
In the late-1980s, she and her husband,
Sardinia-born Giorgio Spanu, stopped in at
Sotheby's New York to pick up a contemporary
art catalogue. The couple decided to peek in on
the auction house's current exhibition of decora-
tive arts, about which they knew little.
Across the room, a half-cobalt blue and half-
emerald green hourglass vase crafted by
Muranese glassblower Paolo Venini caught
Olnick's eye. The couple placed a bid on the
piece and left.

COVER STORY

Murano glass collectors Giorgio Spanu
and Nancy Muck: The only non-
:thi1ili10 glass object to be found in
their Neu, Yin* City apartment is a
mezuzah crafied of ancient Roman glass
the couple picked up on a trip to Israel.

As soon as they walked out the door, the piece
went out of their minds — until Olnick
received a phone call from the auction house:
The hourglass was theirs.
Lovely as it was and happy as they were to
have a work of art by the founder of one of the
most influential glass companies in the world,
the piece still didn't make an enormous impres-
sion on them.
Then Olnick placed it in their home next to
Andy Warhol's Technicolor Flowers. "It was elec-
tric," says Olnick, still in awe of the magic that

THE MAGIC OF MURANO on page 56

12/10
2004

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