Nik Spatari, founder of MuSaBa museum, dies at 91

Nicodemo 'Nik' Spatari, the Italian painter, sculptor, and architect, died at 91 in Mammola, Reggio Calabria. Born in Mammola in 1929, he won the international painting prize of the Rome-Tokyo-Berlin Axis at age nine, but lost his hearing two years later, becoming self-taught in sculpture and architecture. In 1958 he participated in the Venice Biennale, later traveled Europe, moved to Lausanne, then Paris, where he frequented Le Corbusier's studio and met Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, and Max Ernst. In 1966 he settled in Milan with Hiske Maas, opening Galleria Studio Hiske until 1978. In 1969 they founded MuSaBa – Parco Museo Santa Barbara in Mammola, a contemporary art museum-laboratory on the ruins of the former monastery of Santa Barbara. Spatari and Maas described MuSaBa as a project combining art, history, architecture, and environment, offering an image of dynamism and artistic capacity unmatched elsewhere.