In Memoriam


Richard Faletti

"Retired Chicago attorney Richard Joseph Faletti of Clarendon Hills, a respected collector and appraiser of African art, died Dec. 25 at age 84 of brain cancer in his Phoenix, Ariz., home.
A 1949 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he had flown in combat missions during World War II as an Army Air Corps captain.
Mr. Faletti joined Winston & Strawn in 1955 and opened its Hong Kong office in the early 1980s. He was managing partner in the Phoenix office from 1985 until his retirement in 1989.
His interest in African art began when his corporate practice took him to Nigeria in the 1970s. He became a member of the advisory committee of the African and Amerindian Art Department of The Art Institute of Chicago.
Mr. Faletti's acquisitions were a traveling exhibition, “A Sense of Wonder: African Art from the Faletti Family Collection,” in U.S. museums during the 1990s. Pieces from the collection have been donated to the Art Institute and the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois."
Illinois State Bar Association