Franco was invited to Hamburg for the 100 years celebration of YACHT, which he enjoyed very much. The painting he created for this special event was commissioned by YACHT REDAKTION and is now for sale to the highest bidder until October 1st. The total proceeds will go to the YACHT – Projekt Handicap (www.yacht.de/costa). The original will be presented to the buyer during the Hanseboot in Hamburg (October 23-31, 2004). In addition, 10 % of the proceeds from the sales of the posters, will go to beneficial purposes. Joshoua (Franco’s wife): is in charge of the project involved in providing food and medicine for the poor in Mkiwa, a mission in Tanzania. Franco’s friends, Christoph Schumann and Kurt Schubert, wrote an amusing an interesting article in the 100 years YACHT jubilee edition of July 15th.

For those interested, you can find the text under “News”, with the title “Portrait Franco Costa” at www.francocosta.it

After Hamburg, he stayed in Zingst with his family and absorbed the atmosphere of the Bodden. The next “Zingst Cup” (May 27-29, 2005) will be represented by an image done by the Maestro. The original art of this image will also be shown at the Hanseboot in collaboration with Kur-und Turismus Zingst.

On the 31st of July, Franco was present at his exhibition in Burg, on the island of Fehmarn, where he met with many friends. The opening speech can be found on his website: www.francocosta.it, under the headline “News”. (Sorry, it’s only in German).

His next stop was Bastad, Sweden, for the opening of another one of his exhibitions, at the Nordic Art Gallery. Once again, he met with friends and started celebrating his 70th birthday. Franco always gets excited by Sweden’s light, its sloping fields near the water, and its archipelago. We hope to see new paintings of this soon.
After a visit to Legoland (in Billund, Denmark) with his wife, Joshoua, and his daughter, Carlotta, he returned to Kiel, where he was asked to create an original for the K.Y.C. and have an exhibition there, during the next Kieler Woche in 2005.

The celebrations of his 70th birthday ended in Neustadt, during the “Rolex Baltic Week”.

Following this came a short trip to Holland, and then he returned to Hamburg, from where he flew back to Rome. Let’s hope that soon we’ll be able to enjoy the originals that will reflect his inspiration.

There are some exhibitions taking place this month, for anyone who might be interested in
attending:

La Rochelle Club House (Société des Régates Rochelaises), France, during the month of September Tel:+33 05 46 34 97 35, e-mail: partenaires@srrsailing.com

Le Grand Pavois Restaurant (Société des Régates Rochelaises), France,
September 20-25 - Tel :+33 05 46 34 97 35, e-mail: partenaires@srrsailing.com

Galerie Leonardis, Oberursel, Germany, opening on September 17th, until the 16th of October. Tel:+49 6171 59354, e-mail: galerie-leonardis@online.de

Hanseboot, Germany, October 23-31 www.hanseboot.de

P.S. Please note that our website has been updated! The e-commerce will be ready very soon. Looking forward to hearing from you.