Chapter 11

Central bank art collections 142 GPI 2020

The art of central banking

For centuries, central banks have collected art. Many regularly host exhibitions and competitions, helping to bridge the gap between institutions and the public they serve, writes Danae Kyriakopoulou.

THE motivations, magnitude ‘I am convinced that commissions and exhibitions. We and characteristics of central examine how it enables them to banks’ public engagement have economic and cultural strengthen their organisational changed profoundly in the last affairs, and money and culture, and motivate and support decade. Previously hidden away, literature and poetry, their staff. Finally, we cover art as quietly managing and operating are much more closely money, analysing the ways through the plumbing of the financial linked than many which some central banks have built system, these institutions have investment policies for their art come into the spotlight through people believe.’ collections, and money as art, looking their unconventional policies. Last Jean-Claude Trichet, president, at how questions on finance have year’s Global Public Investor probed European (2003-11) inspired artists. how central banks leverage digital communication strategies and social Diverse origins media to strengthen their relationship The presence of art is a characteristic with the public and safeguard their of most central banks, if only in the most valuable resource, trust. form of a painting in the boardroom This year, we continue the series or a sculpture in the main entrance. on central banks’ public engagement But not all institutions document, by delving into their art collections. present and organise their art in This report explores how art can serve the form of a collection. Even fewer as a bridge between institutions and provide public information about the public, and has manifested itself it or have dedicated curator and in different cultures and histories. We investment teams looking after it. The look at how art collections function research presented in this report is as a tool for central banks to support based on an OMFIF database created their local economies and encourage for more than 30 central banks across creativity through competitions, five continents. OMFIF.ORG CENTRAL BANK ART COLLECTIONS 143

Most of the art collections in our sample date from the 20th century. The Banco de España and Banque de France are exceptions, their collections going back to the beginnings of the institutions themselves in the late 18th century and early 19th century, respectively. The Spanish central bank’s collection started in 1782 when the forerunner of the central bank was established by King Charles III as Banco Nacional de San Carlos. At that time, the bank commissioned portraits of the royal family as well as of its directors, including a portrait of its first director Francisco Cabarrús painted by Francisco de Goya in 1788 (right). In the case of the Banque de France, the first set of paintings (The Festival at Saint Cloud by Jean-Honoré Fragonard and three hunting scenes by Francesco Giuseppe Casanova) entered its collection in 1806, when Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte nationalised the bank. The paintings were sold as part of the purchase of the Hôtel des Économats to house central bank officials. More recently, the ’s art collection began in 1938, when on his retirement, Deputy Governor J.A.C. Osborne gave the bank a set of 25 first-edition prints of London scenes by Thomas Shotter Boys. At the same time, Governor Graham Towers authorised the bank to acquire a set of Canadian prints. In the US, the ’s fine arts programme was established in 1975 by Chair Arthur Burns in response to a White Banco de España’s House directive encouraging federal first director, partnership with the arts. Unlike Francisco Cabarrus. other collections, the Fed relies on Francisco de Goya, donations of artwork or outside funds 1788. to purchase works of art. Most European central banks’ art collections consist mainly of paintings, but this is not a global trend. In Colombia, Costa Rica and the years. It is exhibited in two museums, the world’s most precious jewels – Philippines for example, the central the Botero museum and the Miguel including the Darya-i-Nur, the world’s banks are also home to museums with Urrutia museum (which includes the largest pink diamond – the collection exhibits ranging from archaeological numismatic collection in Casa de was transferred to Bank Melli in treasures to medieval goldwork and Moneda). One of ’s most-visited 1937. It formed part of the reserves for pottery. Colombia’s central bank museums, the Treasury of National note issues. It later became collateral owns an art collection consisting of Jewels, is located inside the Central for government liabilities to the bank around 8,000 pieces spanning 500 Bank of Iran. Containing some of and was transferred to the CBI upon 144 CENTRAL BANK ART COLLECTIONS GPI 2020

1. Diverse origins Categorisation of central bank collection origins, Categorisation of central bank collection origins, Source: OMFIF by source of first object(s), selected institutions by time period, selected institutions analysis *The paintings Purchases for decoration Italy, Netherlands, UK Pre-20th century Spain, France collection began Austria, Belgium, Canada, 1910-29 Colombia, Greece, Netherlands with purchases. The Colombia*, ECB, Germany, musical instruments Purchases for collection Greece, Hungary, Trinidad 1930-49 Canada, Italy, Turkey and Botero and Tobago, Turkey Costa Rica, Germany, Iran, collections began as 1950-69 donations Commissioned art Spain South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago Gift/donations Canada, Colombia*, US Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, ** The first paintings 1970-89 were inherited as part Inherited/Transferred Brazil, Philippines, US France **, Iran of the governors’ first from other institution 1990-2009 ECB, Morocco residence building Foreclosures Brazil post-2010 Hungary

‘We’re looking to engage the central bank’s creation in 1960. experience during the Great with society at large. As It is difficult to identify why exactly Depression, when it seized 82 pieces public institutions, we have central banks started collecting art. from Riccardo Gualino, an indebted As noted by Paola Della Pergola in her Turin industrialist and financier. a sense of commitment to foreword to the catalogue of the Banca This includes a collection of 17th the arts and culture. We d’Italia’s Palazzo Koch collection, century tapestries, the third century also feel that it is crucial ‘The history of art collecting Sarcophagus of Ienos, pieces by to incorporate art into highlights a common aspect of the Claude Monet and Pietro Canonica, working life, because that beginning of the all-significant art as well as ancient oriental art. These collections: the choices of pieces of form the basis of the bank’s collection brings our colleagues, the initial collection were absolutely at its head office at Palazzo Koch. Its guests and visitors face by chance.’ Still, most central bank collection overall constitutes around to face with artistic art collection origins can broadly 3,000 items including paintings, expression. Over the years, be grouped into the categories of sculptures, rugs, tapestries and other collecting and exhibiting purchases and commissioned art (for works of decorative art. Colombia’s decoration or for the creation of a Museo Botero includes a collection art has become part of our collection), or through inheritance of 208 pieces that the artist donated institutions’ DNA’. and gifts/donations (Figure 1). The to the central bank in 2000, 123 of Jens Weidmann, president, Deutsche Banco Central do Brasil is an outlier which are his works, with a further 85 Bundesbank in this regard. It received its first set from his personal collection including of paintings, 13 panels by Candido pieces by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Portinari, from the failing Halles Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Investment Bank in 1974. That same Renoir. year, the Áurea investment banks failed and their art went to the BCB. Accessibility, art and technology Today, more than 90% of the central Most central banks in our sample bank’s art collection originates from operate a museum, generally these two episodes. exhibiting the history of money, as The Banca d’Italia had a similar well as the history of the central

2. Stand-out items Pictured L–R: Darya-i-Nur or Sea of light, the world’s largest pink diamond. Violins crafted by Antonio Stradivari. Oesterreichische Nationalbank Yuan or Ming Dynasty ‘The Buddha Shakyamuni in Meditation’ in lacquer. Banca d’Italia. Picture courtesy Banca d’Italia Golden ‘Bat-Man’. Banco de la Republica (Colombia). Picture: Clark M. Rodríguez, courtesy The Museum of Gold, Banco de la Republica OMFIF.ORG CENTRAL BANK ART COLLECTIONS 145

bank and information on central 3. Rural landscape bank operations. With few exceptions at sunset. (Colombia is one), the art collections Claude Monet are not on display at a museum but c.1863-64 are scattered throughout the building Picture courtesy: to decorate offices. For security Banca d’Italia reasons, central banks are usually off limits to the public. This may be gradually changing. For example, has moved its gold safe to Haarlem to make its main building in Amsterdam easier for the public to access. Most people never have the opportunity to see the inside of a central bank. Some central banks offer other ways for people to see ‘The BSP ensures that Rica hosted an exhibition of 100 their art collections when this is not outstanding examples engravings by Picasso, on tour from possible physically. The European Spain’s Instituto Official de Crédito. Central Bank has set up the ECB Art of Filipino genius in its In April-June, the app, which allows users to explore its gold, art, and numismatic hosted an exhibition honouring art collection. It features behind-the- collections are shared 16th century artist Francisco de scenes videos and interviews with with the people through Holanda. In 2014, the Central Bank artists and staff members. The Banca exhibits, books, CDs, social of Malta joined forces with the Victor d’Italia offers an extensive virtual Pasmore Foundation to set up the experience for visitors, providing media, and provincial Victor Pasmore Garllery, a permanent information on the artists and works lectures.’ exhibition of the works that the of art in its collection, as well as 20 Amando Tetangco, governor, British artist created while he lived in virtual tours ranging from ‘Ancient Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Malta. and Oriental Art’ and ‘Antiquity and (2005-17) Some central banks organise the Renaissance’ to ‘Futurism’ and contests to support the arts. The ‘Forms of the Abstract’. Bank Negara Banco Central de la República offers a virtual museum tour Argentina has presented a painting of its art gallery, which provides a sections of its headquarters. contest since 2007 to ‘promote and rotating display of the central bank’s Another way to make art publicly spread Argentine contemporary art collection. available is through temporary art, encourage the involvement of The central banks of Colombia, exhibitions. In 2019, the Deutsche plastic arts, and increase the bank’s Austria and South Africa, among Bundesbank and the National pictorial assets through the purchase others, host catalogues of their Bank of Belgium presented their of paintings.’ The competition has collections on their websites. The first joint exhibition, ‘Building a special prizes for young artists below Central Bank of Iran’s website hosts Dialogue: Two Corporate Collections the age of 35. Supporting living a video documentary on the Crown of Contemporary Art’ at the artists and the local art scene is not Jewels collection. Many other central NBB’s premises in Brussels. ‘This an uncommon motivation for central banks including Greece, Hungary, exhibition marks our attempt to bank art collections. The National the Netherlands and the Philippines spark a special type of dialogue. Bank of Belgium’s collection consists have physical catalogues of their Not just between visitors and the exclusively of works by contemporary collections, though these have not artworks, but also between two art Belgian artists or artists living in been digitalised. collections which have evolved at two Belgium. similar institutions in neighbouring The Central Bank of the Republic Exhibitions and supporting the arts countries’, said Bundesbank President of Turkey organises international Occasionally central banks open their Jens Weidmann. The Bundesbank contests to support the photographic doors to the public. Since 1984, the has also lent items from its art arts. The 2019 exhibition featured Banque de France has participated in collection to exhibitions elsewhere, artists from 74 countries. The France’s Heritage Days programme, for example a Victor Vasarely dining central banks of the Bahamas and of which allows visitors access to the room that was shown at the Centre Trinidad and Tobago have also run ‘Golden Gallery’. Over the past decade, Pompidou in Paris. Earlier this year, art competitions. The Central Bank of it has gradually opened up other the Museo del Banco Central de Costa Ireland and the Hong Kong Monetary 146 CENTRAL BANK ART COLLECTIONS GPI 2020

…Money as art MOST central banks examined in Money as our sample have a museum displaying the history of money and presenting subjects related to their tasks and activities, often through the use of interactive games and multimedia. Coins art vs Art and can be thought of as works of art, and since antiquity artists have been commissioned to design these. According to Andrzej Rottermund, chair as money of the jury choosing the concept of the of ’s Money Centre Exhibition, ‘The money we deal with every Art as money… day should be beautiful – everything CENTRAL banks’ art collections are usually for enjoyment, around us should be aesthetically rather than an investment. Many do not have investment pleasing. The easiest way to teach people policies and very few actively sell their art. They generally a sense of beauty and good taste is do not account for them as part of their reserves, in the by enabling them to deal with beautiful same way that they do for their equity or other holdings. For objects, including money.’ example, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank reports its art Through the ages, money has served as a collection under ‘equipment’ in its balance sheet, which also motif in art. Pieter Laurens Mol’s ‘ includes office equipment, information technology hardware Drawings’ use specific materials like lead and software, and motor vehicles, and is valued at €33.1bn. and gold linked to the process of alchemy Tangible real assets represent a separate category worth to capture behaviours in the world of €51.2bn, including the coins in the OeNB’s money museum money. For Alexander Strengers, chair of and the collection of historical string instruments. Some De Nederlandsche Bank’s art committee, central banks, such as South Africa’s, have explicit policies these are ‘almost poetic works’, which to add to the collection, with annual investment budgets for outline the artist’s view ‘on the banking purchases. In the area these are €125,000-€150,000 sector’s ostensibly mechanistic processes, for the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. The total value of such as capital growth, speculation and collections for which information was disclosed as part of the consolidation’. OMFIF GPI Survey 2020 ranges from under $3m to more than $15m. Some central banks have an investment policy Between 2012-14, the Reserve Bank when it comes to their art collections. They have expanded of Australia hosted an exhibition on their purchases, attracted by a more favourable outlook ‘Pocket Money’ showcasing illustrated compared to other asset classes, like gold and fixed income. literature and comic books from the 1950s According to Citi’s Global Art Market Report, long-term and 1960s that encouraged children’s returns on art stood at over 5% between 1985-2018, similar to interest in saving. In September 2015, those on fixed income portfolios (Figure 4). the came into the spotlight for installing a 17.5-meter- 4. Art performs similar to fixed income in long-term asset class returns high tree sculpture by Giuseppe Penone Estimated annualised returns, 1985-2018 to decorate the primary entrance of its new headquarters. The artwork, titled

Private Equity ‘Gravity and Growth’, was nicknamed the bank’s ‘Magic Money Tree’, and Global Emerging Market Equity interpreted by some as symbolism for the Global Developed Market Equity bank’s quantitative easing programme. Hedge Funds The Federal Reserve also holds money- Global Emerging Fixed Income themed art pieces in its collection, Real Estate including Victor Dubreuil’s ‘Barrels of Global High Yield Fixed Income Money’ and Glenn Fry’s ‘Visualise Having’, Contemporary Art a work the Fed commissioned. Even Global Developed Investment Grade Fixed Income writers have been inspired by central Impressionist Art banking. In 1932, Austrian author Stefan Cash Zweig visited the Banque de France’s underground vault (where the gold Commodities reserves are stored) and wrote an account 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10%12% 14%16% of his experience entitled ‘Besuch bei den Source: Masterworks, Citi Analysis Milliarden’. OMFIF.ORG CENTRAL BANK ART COLLECTIONS 147

Authority have run primary school can be visible already from the an assembly of Samarkand silks by competitions to support children’s most basic form of art present in Robert Rauschenberg, and later Ilya artistic engagement. all of them: their architecture. The Bolotowsky’s ‘Double Diamond’ and At times, financial support has Bank of Canada notes in its 2010 Louis Guglielmi’s ‘New York 21’. taken direct forms. In 2015 the publication on art, ‘In the early De Nederlandsche Bank Executive Banque de France – at the request 20th century, banks were designed Board Member Frank Elderson has of the ministry of culture and to inspire confidence and evoke a decorated his office with a 1989 communication – helped finance feeling of permanence. Modelled on abstract composition by Willem France’s participation in the Greek temples, they conveyed a sense Oorebeek bearing the words in acquisition of the Rembrandt portraits of timeless tradition and security. Spanish: ‘Un coctel de competencias of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen In later, more secular times, the y talentos’. Elderson explained, ‘To Coppit, a joint operation on behalf solemnity of granite, marble and me, they express exactly what the of the Louvre and Rijksmuseum bronze gave way to towers of glass people working at the bank represent: coordinated by the French and and steel. While the approach may a unique combination of skills and Dutch culture ministries. A similar have changed, the intent to impress talents.’ The bank’s Governor Klaas practice on a much larger scale is and inspire confidence remained.’ Knot has a 2004 acrylic painting by Magyar Nemzeti Bank’s depository Over the past decades, central Dietmar Lutz titled ‘The Mosque’ in programme. Set up in 2014, it included banks have made the transition his office. New employee inductions a budget of $100m to be spent on art into buildings that reflect their take place in the DNB’s art gallery. by the end of 2018 with the explicit commitment to sustainability. Central banks’ engagement aim to repatriate art that was formerly Climate change has become a big with the arts has not always been in Hungarian ownership, as well as part of central banks’ agendas, as smooth. Several have been put into keep art in the country when the reflected in the operations of the the spotlight for their choices and Hungarian owner dies. This put the Central Banks and Supervisors actions related to art. In January central bank in the spotlight in 2015 Network for Greening the Financial 2019, amid the #MeToo movement when it acquired ‘Mary and Child with System. against sexual harassment, the St. Paul’ (pictured on this chapter’s De Nederlandsche Bank is housed decided to cover) for $15.8m from a private in a temporary building as its original remove two paintings by Gunnlaugur collector. The Titian painting is now headquarters are being renovated Blöndal featuring nude women, after at the Hungarian National Gallery. to match the institution’s climate- a complaint from a staff member. The Central banks’ support of the arts conscious ethos. The Central Bank decision was criticised as prudish and extends to the performance arts of Ireland moved headquarters in backwards. and music. The Oesterreichische 2017, guided by what the designers Nationalbank holds a collection of described as a ‘less autocratic and Public bodies 44 historical string instruments, more open architectural language’ to Such incidents are part of a broader which it lends for free to Austrian reflect the central bank’s changing trend of heightened public scrutiny musicians. The instruments were tradition from one where security on central banks, whether this used in 2018 to record eight concerts and safety dominate to one where the relates to their monetary policies, in partnership with radio station values of transparency and openness supervision actions, reserves Ö1. Adding to its extensive gold are reflected. management or communications. and art collections, the Colombian Art offers a glimpse into They are no longer viewed central bank began collecting individuals’ personalities, tastes as unelected, unaccountable historical musical instruments in and principles. In a 2010 op-ed technocratic bodies locked away in a 1928. The collection is made up of 85 for the Wall Street Journal, Mary statistical ivory tower. Rather, they instruments, including a piano from Anne Goley, the founding director are increasingly perceived as public 1850. The Banque de France, although of the Federal Reserve’s fine arts bodies from which citizens expect it does not own a musical instruments programme, wrote that Fed Chair a strong public service ethos. Their collection, has a policy of encouraging Ben Bernanke’s characterisation as art collections and related activities musical activities on its premises, ‘creative’, ‘innovative’ and ‘flexible’ can be a useful tool in central banks’ and regularly invites new musical in his economic management could quest to manage expectations for formations and young musicians to ‘also apply to his taste in art’. She openness. perform in the Golden Gallery. went on to say that ‘rather than In a small but symbolic way, being predictable, Bernanke’s [art] these practices offer a new area for Monetary expressionism choices changed three times during central banks’ asset managers to Central banks’ engagement with art [his] time at the Fed’: traditional show they are interested in both mirrors the way these institutions landscapes by Thomas Hotchkiss high investment standards and have evolved as workplaces. This and Arthur Bellows, followed by satisfactory returns. •