Lucio Fontana, the Italian artist who got the best adjudication at Christie’s London auction dedicated to after-war and contemporary art, sanctions himself at an international level together with other Italian artists such as De Chirico, Manzoni and Burri.
The curve of growth of his price is entrusting: one can still buy a significant work of his with less than 500thousand pounds and this let think his value has a fair margin of growth.
“At frieze many upsetting news, forgetting history, while at Basel there is more balance”, it is Guido Galimberti’s opinion, the chief executive of Iperion, a partnership of business consultation, and art advisor with the company Opera.
How was it in London?
Even at the fair there was the goods sold but without surplus as at the auctions. While the Italian art flew, a sense of consciousness reshaped the remainder. The value of the Italian artists, who have some space yet, is recognized with clapping at the end of the auction: Bonalumi was satisfying, Castellani holds and Fontana flies. Maybe the prices of Lucien Freud were surrealistic. Christie’s attained the best auction issue of october, it seems that a balance between the Italian art and the remainder has come back.
Advisor means fiduciary:an experienced professional man who can choose the best competence in accordance with the client’s needs. Is it the art advisor’s job?
He is a technician who should lead his neophyte or skilled client in choosing works he can appreciate, with the principle of the fiduciary.
What’s his role in Italy?
I’ve been working in the financial world for years and I’m always living surrounded by works of art of all kind, time and idea. The market world crisis is leading small and big investors’ bills to look for protect “goods”: today the financial and cultural scenaries are changing thoroughly; the market of art is extremely rich in offers and this is why it is insidious.
How can one take up?
My firs rule is buying with heart. First of all one should like the work he is buying: it has no sense purchasing a picture because it might revalue in the future; the work should be “enjoyed” however.
Helping a collector in sharpening his taste,but even in avoiding shady business?
The attraction for what is beautiful, together with culture and taste, has been basic parameters of collecting till now and they produced welth both for collectors and for the following generations. Of course one should buy only published and certificated works. The art advisor should humbly recognize his limits and apply to a very strong scientific commitee: art offers many archives, publications and other supports that can reassure on the purchase, that you needn’t check on all occasions.
What do you suggest when one is buying at an auction?
Before the purchase, according with the bills, the advisor asks his client to make his choice: a master piece or a bet on the future with a young artist? In both cases the purchase of the work should answer four question: does one like it? Is it authentic? Is it filed/published? Is the priece fair astothe market?
And when one buys in a gallery?
The same principles of the auctions are valid but with a difference: the experience of the gallerist can be a plus.
Art should first of all respond to a personal pleasure, but may it be an investment too?
Absolutely, I believe art involves one’s heart first of all and then, if well run, in the middle term it can be a profitable business. Personally, taking as an example a basket of 10 artists built up in 10 years, I obtained, according to Arsvalue, a growth of 600 percent.
How can one debunk it?
Three the ways: direct collector, gallery and auction.
The art advisor helps in considering the advantage of the one as to the other.
How can one understand when an artist will increase his value?
It isn’t easy, through taste, technical considerations and expert advices. I could name a few artists I trust on at this moment: Milani, Patrini, Velasco, Perego and Pizzigoni. Each of them, in his way, with his characteristics, is a talent.
Do you think to a fund of investment?
We are working to the setting up of a very restricted fund that will take care of gathering collectors round itself.
There was great expectation for the issues of London’s auctions of 19th and 20th october.
The article offers dr. Guido Galimberti comment; he says the Italian art although left alone, not supported by great international operators, with the exception of rare cases, has shown its vitality and this is a very positive signal for our market.
In the last ten years, his adjudication prieces have multiplied by ten. And now he steadily belongs to the élite of artists that Christie’s and Sotheby’s bring to London every october to “Italian Sales” , the auctions that open the doors to great international circuits. And yet Enrico Castellani, class 1930, wasn’t a big of the market up to 50 years ago.
The article points out that the indeces of Art Investments allow an equalization between the investments in art and the investments in finance, a purpose that dr. Guido Galimberti wants to follow through Opera, his company of art advisoring.
Guido Galimberti, chief executive of Iperion and Opera: his carreer and his passions.
“I work as a company adviser, but in my spare time I give myself up to culture: the dream is to join these two worlds”.
Guido Galimberti grows up professionally in the financial context, but he is a collector of modern and contemporary art and he appreciates the antiques too, going in for a deep-rooted interest in culture.
In 2007 he sets up Opera with the clear intention of conciliating passion and profession, art and finance.
Opera’s first aim, in its capacity as advisor, is to help the collector in his choice of the work of art, although ancient or modern, with a scientific committee to check the property of the work itself.