Joe Helman ran two important galleries in New York (Blum Helman and later, Joe Helman Gallery). Joe has been one of the most successful art dealers of the 20th century. His stable included William Baziotes, Joseph Cornell, Roy Lichtenstein, Bruce Nauman, Ellsworth Kelly, and Richard Serra among other notables. Together with his wife, Ursula, they have restored one of Umbria’s most magnificent buildings, Petacciolo Castle, which dates back to Carolingian times. The castle overlooks the city of Todi with spectacular vis ov the countryside. Joe and Ursula live here a good part of the year, spending the rest of the year in New York City.
Lucrezia, Giuliano and Eralda Di Martino are a family passionate about photography. Lucrezia was for several years Director of the Michael Hoppen Gallery (London), and is now Consulting Director of Strategic Partnerships for the MUUS Collection in New York. Her interest for the arts was directly inherited from her parents — both art collectors. Her father Giuliano is an architect working in Italy and in London. Since a young age he has specialized in cultural and environmental assets as well as the restoration of monuments. Eralda is a Philosophy graduate with a Master’s in Criminology; she is currently working for a program of social and cultural recovery in Naples’ downgraded districts.
Giampaolo Abbondio is renowned gallerist and publisher from Milan who recently fell in love with the town of Todi and decided to open a second gallery here. The gallery is located on the main piazza and is one of the most magnificent exhibition spaces in Italy.
Filippo Orsini is the Director of the Historical Archives of the city of Todi. He has a profound knowledge of the city’s history and is the author of numerous publications on the subject. He is particularly interested in the history of the Papal States, the orders of chivalry and their proofs of nobility, family memoirs and genealogy.
Carlo Rocchi Bilancini is a well-known personality in Todi, and often attends some of our evening events. Carlo is a photographer who specializes in a unique kind of portrait — his subjects are pictured in swimming pools with the brilliant turquoise of the water serving as a vibrant backdrop.
Matteo Boetti is a poet, a songwriter, and a Todi art gallerist. Matteo grew up in an artistic milieu: his father was the famous conceptual artist Alighiero Boetti. Matteo’s books come about from collaborations with many of the artists he represents. Among his other passions are numerology and horse breeding.
The Marquise Ginevra Sanminiatelli Corsini in Bruti Liberati, known to us a little less formally as Ginevra, is a member of the Florentine princely Corsini family, which counts in the family two popes and a saint! She is a specialist in antique carpets and textiles and has consulted for Christie’s.
Jane Kramer is a well-known writer and correspondent for The New Yorker, where she’s been since 1964. She received a 1981 National Book Award for Nonfiction as well as an Emmy Award for documentary film-making, National Magazine Award, Front Page Award and the Prix européen de l’essai Charles Veillon. She is the founding director of the Committee to Protect Journalists and has taught at Princeton, among other institutions. Jane’s husband, the anthropologist Vincent Crapazano, is a Professor of Anthropology and Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Stash Klossowski De Rola is the son of Balthus: ‘Stash’, actually, Prince Stanislaus Klossowski de Rola, was a friend of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Syd Barrett, and played percussion in Vince Taylor’s band.
Alberto Vitale was the Chairman and CEO of Random House, Inc. for the last decade of the 20th Century. Before being at Random House he was the CEO of the Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. Among his authors were Agatha Christie, Ed Doctorow, , Chuck Yeager, Robert Ludlum, Norman Mailer, Katherine Hepburn, Ken Follett, and Toni Morrison.
Beverly Pepper is, sadly, no longer with us, but deserves mention as the doyenne of the Todi Amici, and the first ‘expat’ to settle in Umbria many decades ago. Many other Americans followed her to Todi in the 70s, people like the painter Al Held and the actor Ben Gazzara. A renowned sculptor with a career that spanned four decades (big show at Marlborough New York a few years back), she split her time between the US and Todi, where she had her studio. Her works are included in permanent collections at MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the White House Sculpture Garden, and many more. In 2013, Pepper was awarded the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Bill Pepper, Beverly’s husband, who unfortunately passed away two years before his wife at 96, was also a good friend of the Todi Circle. Bill was bureau chief of Newsweek in Rome, covered the Vatican for United Press and also worked for the Rome bureau of CBS. is
