Where and when
The first of a series of appointments in the parerga cycle which will feature gallery owners who have witnessed and brought about the profound transformations that have taken place in the works of art market since the postwar period
Francesca Melania Marini in conversation with Roberto Casamonti
Introduced by: Sergio Risaliti
How is the value of a work of art established? How have the criteria for establishing the “price” of the works of the most famous artists changed? What do finance and politics have to do with the art market? This and more will be discussed on Friday 9 November at 6:00pm during the meeting From Giotto to Hirst: some gallery owners and an art historian, the first of a series of events introduced by the artistic director of the Novecento Museum, Sergio Risaliti and led by Francesca Melania Marini, art historian who will “question” some important gallery owners, who have witnessed and brought about the profound transformations that have taken place in a market such as that of works of art, guided by passion and creativity since the postwar period. The first to participate in the series of meetings is Roberto Casamonti, an art lover, founder of the TornabuoniArte gallery which, which started in Florence in 1981, now extends well beyond national borders, promoting both modern and contemporary art as well as ancient art.
The works, the artists, the collectors and the events that from the economic boom of the sixties led to the advent of globalization and the technological revolution will be the narrative fabric of the work carried out in the same period by the main figures of the world art market: the gallery owners who they worked in order to connect the artwork to the collector.
The disclosure of their choices, their mistakes, the most significant encounters and their perspectives will constitute the objective of each conversation, conducted by Francesca Melania Marini, with the ultimate aim of exploring the construction of the value of a work in the modern era . An era that, for the first time almost live worldwide, saw the awarding of a price equal to over 450 million dollars for a painting assigned to Leonardo da Vinci.
The recognition of this value, once a preponderant and sometimes exclusive matter in the art market, is now extended far beyond the exchanges of the artifacts of great masters such as Giotto, Leonardo, Bernini, Van Gogh, Picasso or Hirst. In fact, it seems rather to get confused in the complex universe of today’s communication in which the boundaries of the artistic subject intersect with economics, finance, politics, raising questions and perplexities.