Toronto Gallery Owner Killed by Falling Tree Branch
Toronto gallery owner Pari Nadimi has died after being hit by a falling tree branch last week.
Iranian-born Nadimi, who had operated the Pari Nadimi Gallery since 1998, was 71.
A friend, Madeleine Donahue, told CBC News Nadimi suffered a critical brain injury last week. She died in hospital last Thursday.
Officials are investigating the incident, which occurred in Trinity Bellwoods Park, near the gallery.
The gallery represents artists such as Vancouver's Matilda Aslizadeh and David Rokeby, winner of a 2002 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.
Nadimi studied art history and archeology at the Sapienza University of Rome, and later taught there. But her obituary says her passion was contemporary art and working with cutting-edge artists.
"Pari was multi-talented," the obituary says. "She spoke a number of languages, was an astute businesswoman, and had a keen eye spotting young innovative talent. She possessed a sardonic sense of humour; and an almost childlike wonderment of the world in all its beauty and tragedy."