A poor child who is suffering from a heart defect is waiting for the Magdy Yacoub Foundation to provide the financial support needed for the surgery that would fix his heart’s malfunction. Such a wait can be taxing, because as time passes health can deteriorate and sometimes the required funding does not arrive in time.
However, this child’s long anticipation of assistance from the foundation, among many others, is soon to be over. This is thanks to a large donation of money from the Art for Life exhibition that seeks to assist in financing surgeries needed to fix dozens of children’s hearts.
In an international auction, the exhibition showed some of the masterpieces created by international artists Adel El Siwi, Mohamed Abla, and Ahmad Farid, who donated money earned from some of their artwork to the Magdy Yacoub Foundation.
The exhibition was held by Bulgari Egypt in cooperation with SafarKhan Gallery. Sherwet Shafei, the owner of Safarkhan, donated two pieces of art that she has been collecting her whole life. One of them was as owl statue by the late artist Salah Abdel Karim, and the other was an Arabic calligraphy painting by artist Youssef Sida.
“I donated two of what I consider to be the most important artistic pieces of my gallery for the cause. There’s no greater work than saving the life of a kid who is in need of a chance to live,” said Shafei. “The auction was internationally successful and we found people interested in buying the pieces from all over the world.”
“There is a great similarity between painting a canvas and drawing a smile on a child’s face. Both may look easy to achieve, but when looking deep into them, one can realise the hard work invested to make it happen,” said Fidaa Baddour, managing director of Bulgari Africa.
The collaboration between the Italian jeweler, talented and celebrated Egyptian artists, and the Art For Life exhibition will be on display at the Bulgari Boutique until 30 June 2016, throughout which Bulgari Cairo boutique will be donating 3% of its revenues to the Magdi Yacoub Foundation.
