Renowned sculptor Virginio Ferrari ...

Renowned sculptor Virginio Ferrari says undivided of his most famous children has been mistreated.

This "child" -- actually a 5000-pound tin sculpture named "Vita" -- sat outside Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood for more than three decades.

nevertheless three years ago, unbeknownst to Ferrari, Loyola had the carve taken down. Ferrari's work was given to a construction contractor who was told the hospital planned to junk it.

Ferrari -- whose principally famous work, "Being Born," sits near the Ohio road exit ramp off the Kennedy Expy -- single learned of the Loyola sculpture's fate when an art factor contacted his studio wondering if Ferrari wanted to purchase it back.

LOYOLA'S MISTAKE

Ferrari, 69 is turn upside down that the piece has languished revealed of public view for with equal reason long. He also wonders for what cause [i]or[/i] reason Loyola never contacted him about its plans for the piece, calm though he was a member of the Loyola University Rome Center faculty from 1999 to 2002 Rather than hand it from one side of to the other to a contractor, they could have asked him to help find a city or institution that wanted it. And from pictures he has seen the plastic art looked cracked and corroded and in generally poor condition.

"They should have more respect" said Ferrari, who has studios in Chicago and Verona, Italy, and lives in the two cities. "It's an important piece. It's single of my children."

Loyola officials said the hospital was forced to carry the sculpture in 2003 when a puddle below the piece leaked. A recent statue of St. Ignatius, the university's patron saint, was elevateed

still it wasn't until two years later -- in August 2005 -- that an administrator at the seminary realized the construction firm that took it down, Lyman Contracting, was erroneously given possession of "Vita."

"Unfortunately . . our facilities staff mistakenly told the contractor he could take the statue instead of storing it," hospital spokeswoman Deborah Simpkins said in a statement.

Simpkins said the hospital then had the contractor respond it, and paid Lyman $19000 for storage and transportation pays But Bart Lyman Jr. said the company decided to respond the statue after the artist's son Marco, who roll ons his father's studio in Chicago, questioned plans to barter it last summer.

He said the company took the cut after Loyola officials said they planned to "trash it."

Ferrari was a hotshot young Italian sculptor picked by the University of Chicago to be an artist in residence. At the time, "Vita" -- Italian for "life" -- was the first public art complet at Lorado Taft's famous Midway Studios since 1942

'It's like a dead body'

Ferrari exhausted a year working on mold for the piece, which depicts pair arms reaching to the firmament as they heal, becoming exempt from pain. Water -- representing life -- flowed gently down the sides into a plash below.

Including Ferrari's commission, the work sumptuousness $30,000. It would cost $90000 to cast a similar, 27-foot tall piece today, Marco Ferrari estimates.

The artist, who has done more than 3000 works in his career, would command a commission of about $350000

When the work was finished, there was a large dedication parade as well as a feast in Ferrari's honor at the upscale Tavern fraternity The piece, Ferrari recalled, was undivided of the first abstract works commissioned after the Picasso was dedicated the year before in Daley Center Plaza,. Ferrari has since crafted 31 carves on display in the Chicago area.

Loyola was not able to provide any information forward the donor, Anthony Troub, a physician who graduated from Loyola in 1928 Many at the hospital don't recall greatly about the piece; some referr to it as the "upside-down pants" cut

still Ferrari says his work be worthy ofs better. Looking at photos provided through the art broker, he views his piece lying on its side in what appears to be a driveway, detached from the collection of standing water that was an integral part of its design. "It's terrible," he said. "It's like a dead body"

dnewbart@suntimes.com

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