Great wine and charity: “Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista 2019: The Vigor” raises $302,000

When one of the absolute top brands of Italian wine meets international art for charity, success is inevitable. And so it was, once again, for the auction of the lots of “Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista 2019: The Vigor” auctioned by Sotheby’s, online, which, with the bottles of Frescobaldi’s Bolgheri-based label “dressed” by the works of Swedish artists Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, raised an impressive $302,000, which will be donated to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to continue the important work of the Mind’s Eye program, which focuses on facilitating the enjoyment of art for the blind (and which adds to the more than $2 million donated by the project, in previous editions). Announcing the results of the auction, Ornellaia CEO Giovanni Geddes da Filicaja announced, not without satisfaction, that he has renewed the collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum for another three years: “we are very excited to continue to support the growth of this special project in which we believe. From the beginning we wanted Mind’s Eye to develop to be available to a wide audience from different places around the world. This global vision, today, has developed even further by making it present in all the museums of the Guggenheim constellation-New York, Venice, Bilbao”.
Mind’s Eye is more than just an experience; rather, it is a set of tools capable of expanding accessibility to art through the use of the senses. In fact, as Richard Amstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, explains, “with the continued support of Ornellaia, we will expand Mind’s Eye programs to global audiences with a focus on developing verbal descriptions in all of our museums. Next year we will produce content for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection with multiple language translations. In addition, events in New York and online programs that will be available internationally will continue. Looking ahead to 2023, with the proceeds from the auction, we will focus on creating Mind’s Eye content for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Projects that will continue into 2024 to grow the program by expanding resources and audiences”.
Wine like art transcends words and using an emotional language takes on, through the senses, a universal significance. The interpretation of the vintage was entrusted to the creativity of Swedish artists Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg. At the center of the work is the theme of the metamorphosis and cyclical nature and its constantly evolving propulsive force, a perfect canvas for the 14th edition artists to interpret through art the theme of Vigor. Among the precious lots, put up for auction, are the nine 6-liter Imperial and the unique 9-liter Salmanazar from Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista 2019, where through the sculptures the evolution of the concept of the relationship between man and earth is expressed.