About Us

Carol Curci began collecting prints by Leonor Fini in the spring of 1967 while attending college in New York City. Limited to the few galleries in New York which sold Fini's work, Curci began to investigate galleries around the country as well as in Europe. In the summer of 1972, while traveling through Europe, Curci met the internationally known art dealer, Jacques Carpentier, who was at the time, the artist's publsher. That fall, Carpentier introduced Carol Curci to Leonor Fini at her home in Paris.

While living in Paris from September 1983 until August 1984, Curci came to know Leonor Fini as a friend, often visiting her either in Paris, or her country home in St. Dye sur Loire. Jacques Carpentier continued to mentor the young art dealer and a close personal and professional relationship developed. In addition, the well known French art dealer, Philippe Laire, assisted Curci in securing the finest watercolors and drawings available for resale. Within a short period of time, Carol Curci was selling the work of Leonor Fini to private collectors throughout the United States. The initial purpose of the year in Paris was to collect educational data for the New York City Department of Education while on sabbatical. Who could have imagined that Sabbatique Ltd. (French for sabbatical) would be born out of one young woman's passion for one extraordinary artist's work?

With an interest in Surrealism, Sabbatique Ltd. began to offer the works of Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Hans Bellmer, Stanislao Lepri and Giorgio de Chirico. Later, works of Samuel Bak and Mihail Chemiakin and Marcel Delmotte were added. In the 1990's, Sabbatique Ltd. and Galerie Carpentier together, introduced the work of a young Armenian artist to the United States. Yerant Douvalin, then living in Paris, enjoyed terrific success with the sale of his large acrylic mixed media paintings of machinery and mechanisms. Yerant's latest efforts have been in set design and the graphic art for The Matrix films.

Most recently, Sabbatique Ltd. has been organizing syndicates of art collectors for the purpose of purchasing important works. Carol Curci, an appraiser and Member of The Appraisers Association of America, now offers the firm an opportunity to prepare appraisals for insurance, estates, donations, gifts and IRS purposes.

"My greatest joy comes in educating new collectors," Curci said recently. She prides herself on bringing to her clients art which enhances existing private and corporate collections as well as starting new ones. Curci only curates one collection at a time. She explains, "when I am working closely with a client, I like to keep my focus on the development of that collection. I keep myself very busy buying and selling at auction, shopping the retail marketplace, offering merchandise as one of the seventy five dealers at the new art and antique center, Center 44 in New York, and researching and writing appraisals." She is currently preparing for a Certification Examination as a Specialist in the field of Fine Art Prints.