OLGIATI
GHIRINGHELLI
SALA
O
LGIATI
G
HIRINGHELLI
S
ALA
Founder of the firm in 1968 and senior partner, Giancarlo Olgiati has extensive experience in the fields of national and international commercial, corporate, tax and contract law and has consulted for major Swiss and international groups. A renowned art collector together with his wife Danna and gallery owner until 2010, specialising in the historical and contemporary avantgarde, Olgiati has consulted on art law and the art market for over 50 years.
Active at the firm since 1996 and partner since 2018, Andrea Ghiringhelli handles tax, commercial, corporate and contract law. He looks after the interests of various players in the art market, including gallery owners, art merchants, collectors and public and private institutions. Ghiringhelli has represented law and notary firms on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Services of the Canton of Ticino since 2015.
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A partner at the firm since 2021, Adriano A. Sala focuses on contract, commercial, intellectual property (copyright and trademark law) and inheritance law. Having specialised in art market law at the University of Zurich, he represents copyright management companies and he looks after the interests of art foundations, galleries and artists. Sala has chaired the Ticino section of the Swiss Road Transport Association (ASTAG) since 2018, and the Cantonal Joint Committee for Road Transport since 2019.
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In 1968, Giancarlo Olgiati, a lawyer with a degree in law and economy from the University of Geneva, founded the Olgiati Law and Notary Firm in Lugano. Right from the outset, his plan was to set up a trust company to support the firm with administrative, accounting and corporate services. Confinanz SA was therefore established in the same year to offer consultancy and assistance in the incorporation and administration of companies, the setting up of trusts and property management. This was an entirely new idea for the time.
From the 1970s to the early 2000s, Olgiati acted as lawyer and administrator for important international groups in the sectors of banking, fashion, industry, publishing and communication, including Crédit Commerciale de France, Kredietbank, Benetton, Philip-Morris, Audemars Piguet, Mondadori, Mediaset and Polyvideo.
Olgiati also held a significant role in the world of cinema as founder and advisor to the Montecinemaverità Foundation, which was based at the firm. Olgiati oversaw the economic, financial and organisational running of the Foundation in collaboration with Harald Szeemann, president of the Foundation and one of the world’s greatest art critics and curators, and Marco Müller, one of the world's greatest cinema experts and director of festivals such as Locarno, Venice, Rome and Shanghai.
Olgiati was also co-founder, member and advisor on the Board of Trustees for the MASI Foundation (Museo della Svizzera Italiana) and former president and honorary chairperson of PRO MUSEO.
Andrea Ghiringhelli, who had worked at the firm since 1996, became a partner at the Olgiati firm in 2018 and the firm updated its name to Olgiati Ghiringhelli Law and Notary Firm. Specialising in tax, commercial, corporate and contract law and representative to law and notary firms on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Services of the Canton of Ticino, Ghiringhelli looks after the interests of various players in the art market, including gallery owners, art merchants, collectors and public and private institutions. With the addition of Ghiringhelli as partner, the firm consolidated its national and international relationships.
In 2021, Adriano A. Sala also became a partner at the firm, having specialised in art law at the University of Zurich. Sala primarily concentrates on contract, commercial, intellectual property (copyright and trademark) and inheritance law. He represents copyright management companies and handles the interests of art foundations, galleries and artists. Since 2018, he has chaired the Ticino section of the Swiss Road Transport Association (ASTAG) since 2018, and the Cantonal Joint Committee for Road Transport since 2019. With the addition of Sala as partner, the firm was able to reinforce its position in the field of copyright and trademark law.
In 2021 therefore, the firm adopted the name it is still known by today: OGS Law and Notary Firm – Olgiati Ghiringhelli Sala. The professional, intellectual and cultural imprint of Olgiati still defines the professional and interpersonal activity of the firm which, today, thanks to its new partners, can provide diverse legal, notary and trust services in all sectors pertaining to the art market.
Since 2022, the Olgiati Ghiringhelli Sala Law and Notary Firm has also acted as Foreign Of Counsel for the Italian group of lawyers and notaries Leading Law ↗.
Since 2022, the Olgiati Ghiringhelli Sala Law and Notary Firm has acted as Foreign Of Counsel for the Italian group of lawyers and notaries Leading Law ↗.
OGS is home to works of art from the Giancarlo and Danna Olgiati collection. Located in the heart of Lugano, alongside the LAC – Lugano Art and Culture cultural centre, the Collection boasts over 200 works of great artistic importance, ranging from the early twentieth century to the contemporary era. The primary objective of the collection is to connect Italian avantgarde masterpieces with the European and global context that saw their creation, as a way to highlight their specific characteristics, explore their roots and document their evolution.
Futurist archive, part of the Giancarlo and Danna Olgiati Collection.
Thanks to the expertise of Danna Olgiati, a gallery owner specialising in the historic and contemporary avantgarde, and the wife of Giancarlo Olgiati, the studio has exhibited important works of early twentieth-century Italian avantgarde and contemporary art since 1985. These artworks are loaned from the Giancarlo and Danna Olgiati Collection in a carefully curated and periodically updated exhibition, a source of immense pleasure for all visitors to the studio.
The sequence of architectural spaces designed by architect Luciano Giorgi is well portrayed in the photographs of Michele Ostini: from the smallest, most intimate areas in the central studio and conference rooms to the larger hallway and lateral spaces. The firm enjoys loans from the Olgiati Collection, which fit into the space to create a coherent decoration scheme. These include Futurist furniture and a bookcase by Chiattone and beautiful artworks, which are changed periodically. The photos of the different spaces clearly demonstrate the avantgarde (historic and contemporary) theme that links the furniture and the artworks.
