Footwear collector, philanthropist Sonja Bata remembered for passion, generosity
TORONTO — Collector and philanthropist Sonja Bata, whose collection of global footwear treasures formed the basis of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, has died.
The museum’s acting director Sheila Knox says Bata passed away Tuesday evening at Toronto Western Hospital, surrounded by friends and family. She was 91.
Bata began collecting footwear in the 1940s, and her fascination with design and history led to a collection of more than 13,000 artifacts chronicling 4,500 years of history.
Born in Zurich, Switzerland to a prominent family of lawyers, Bata studied architecture until meeting Czech-Canadian Thomas Bata, the heir of a global shoe manufacturing and retail empire.