property from the Estate of Lucia von Borosini Batten sold to benefit the Albuquerque Museum Foundation LOTS 778 – 815 Lucia von Borosini Batten was born in Chicago in 1911, the only child of Baron Victor von Borosini and Edith Dorr von Borosini. Her parents were connected with Hull House, the famous settlement house established in Chicago for social reform by philanthropist and social innovator Jane Addams. Ms. Addams was Lucia’s godmother. The von Borosinis traced their lineage back to Venetian nobility, while the Dorrs were descended from old New England stock and had prospered in the lumber and mining businesses. She was educated in Europe and America at schools in Italy, France, Switzerland, California, Michigan, and Connecticut. Lucia spoke five languages –- English, German, Italian, Spanish and French. Well before she finished her education, Lucia had traveled widely both in America and Europe but ultimately settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she purchased an adobe hacienda built in 1875 with an interior courtyard. It was love at first sight. She purchased the home and thirty years later it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of very few territorial haciendas remaining in New Mexico. By the time Lucia was 50, she had attended private schools in four different countries, made many Atlantic crossings, two voyages through the Panama Canal, and traveled extensively throughout Europe. She had been presented at the court of King George V and Queen Mary, had been divorced three times and married four, established friendships with noted British writers such as Vyvyan Holland (son of Oscar Wilde), accumulated a vast and valuable book collection and raised three sons. Lucia was a wealthy woman who loved collecting “because she could.” She appears to have started collecting paintings and drawings by the 1940s, and continued doing so until the end of her life. Well-respected regional artists such as Dan Lutz, James Harill, Christopher Gerlach, Ou Mie Shu and George Dick were among her favorites. Her book collections featured private press books produced in limited editions mostly in the early 20th century by English firms. The books were housed in their own private library, built in 1966, adjacent to her house.
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