Italian art critic Marco Vallora dies at 69 on train

Italian art critic Marco Vallora died suddenly at age 69 on a train traveling to Lucca for a visit to a Leonardo Dudreville exhibition at the Fondazione Ragghianti. He was found by railway police in Vercelli after feeling unwell during a phone call. Vallora was a prominent critic for La Stampa, Panorama, L'Europeo, Il Sole 24 Ore, and Arte magazine. He curated the 2018 exhibition 'Dal Nulla al Sogno' at Fondazione Ferrero in Alba, featuring works from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen alongside books, poems, films, and music. He was a fervent supporter of Giulio Paolini and wrote extensively on Dada and Surrealism. His friend Michele Bonuomo, director of Arte, recalled his immense knowledge. Vallora suffered a stroke four years ago and a serious accident around 2016 when hit by a taxi. He was known for his obsessive book collecting, filling two apartments and a warehouse in Milan. He had requested asylum in a former gallery in Turin. He was a friend of conductor Riccardo Muti and writer Enrico Pandiani. His cousin Luca Brancaleon described him as a serial accumulator. Vallora's unpublished texts include a 150-page essay on Hans Hartung and a study on Antonio Sanfilippo for Galleria dello Scudo.