Matricola 302092 Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna Facoltà di Economia Corso di Laurea in Gestione e Innovazione delle organizzazioni culturali ed artistiche Private action in contemporary art: the experience of Palazzo Grassi S.p.A. Candidato Relatore Claudia Cottrer Michele Trimarchi Cultural Economics Sessione Seconda - Anno Accademico 2008/2009 ‘Collectors will all go to Heaven’ Pierre Rosenberg 2 Contents 1. Specific problems of the Italian contemporary art scenario ......................... 7 1.1. Predominance of classic art .................................................................. 7 1.2. Insufficient economic involvement of the state ..................................... 8 1.3. Slowness and rigidity of the State to follow the new trends ................ 12 2. On collectors and collecting in general ....................................................... 15 2.1. The collection ...................................................................................... 16 2.2. The collector ........................................................................................ 17 3. Tools for the implementation of art collecting thanks to private actors or public mechanisms .............................................................................................. 20 3.1. Legge del Due per Cento ...................................................................... 20 3.2. Law n. 512 of the 1982 - Legge Guttuso ............................................... 25 3.3. Corporate collections .......................................................................... 27 3.4. Banking Foundations ........................................................................... 29 4. The unique experience of Palazzo Grassi S.p.A........................................... 32 4.1. The story of Palazzo Grassi .................................................................. 32 4.1.1. From the construction to the FIAT administration ........................ 33 4.1.2. From Angelo Terruzzi to François Pinault ...................................... 34 4.1.3. François Pinault and the contract of acquisition .......................... 36 4.2. The Pinault administration of Palazzo Grassi ...................................... 40 4.2.1. The Pinault collection .................................................................... 45 4.2.2. The relevance of communication, networking and didactics ........ 48 4.2.3. The managerial approach to the institution .................................. 52 3 4.3. Summary assessment of three years of management ......................... 54 4.3.1. The financial perspective .............................................................. 55 4.3.2. The customer perspective ............................................................. 59 4.4. Perspectives and criticalities .............................................................. 62 4.4.1. Tourism in Venice and the contemporary art audience ................. 62 4.4.2. The new Centre of Punta della Dogana .......................................... 65 4.4.3. Possible criticalities for the future ................................................ 68 Bibliography ......................................................................................................... 76 Ringraziamenti ..................................................................................................... 79 4 IntroIntroductductductionionionion Italy has always been one of the richest country and a cradle for European culture. In the past centuries, our country was one of the inevitable stages of the education of young artists and scholars. Doubtless, this predominant importance was assured by the immense cultural, architectonical and artistic heritage that our ancestors have contributed to create in many centuries and that we still take care of. This importance however was also due to the continuous activities of merchants, prelates and wealthy people, willing to donate their money for the creation of art and caring of their cultural education as well as their fellow citizens. Indicative of this involvement is the fact that the term used to identify this phenomenon mecenatismo has its roots in the times of Christ, referring to the patron of the art Gaio Cilnio Mecenate, councilor of the emperor Augusto. The international literature moreover, is full of examples of epistles written by musicians, painters, playwriters for their financers, always underlining the fact that without their supports, they couldn’t afford their activities anymore. As the notary and scholar Enrico Bellezza argues for example ‘[w]ithout patrons, today we wouldn’t enjoy the music of Mozart as well as the operas of Richard Wagner’ (Bellezza in Impresa e Cultura 2002:66). Obviously, the presence of these important actors in the cultural scenario was predominant in historical times when the economic difference between social classes was extreme and just a few individuals could afford this kind of generosity. The greater diffusion of well-being characterizing our times (at least in our continent), has instead profoundly changed the profile of these donors, that are no longer nobles and aristocrats, but now mainly corporations and rich entrepreneurs. With the rise of the so-called welfare state however, culture and the art started to be considered as meritorious goods and the sector began to be subsidized increasingly by the states, especially in Europe. Starting from the 80’s instead, the Treaty of Maastricht and the Thatcher’s 5 categorical imperative ‘roll back the role of the state’ influenced the spreading of a new paradigm: the light state, coordinating and overseeing some sectors, but not directly managing them. Obviously, the cultural sector was and still is one of the first suffering from these huge cuts of resources and nowadays it seems obvious that the State couldn’t be any longer the only patron of the art. This trend is currently more evident than ever and in the last decades cultural operators, at first hostile to the participation of privates, are now fostering their relations with these stakeholders and recognizing their importance. Specifically in the visual art, their contribution has always been and still is vital for the acquisition of collections and works of art that are now showed in public museums and belong to the State. As Kristof Pomian states in his masterpiece Collectors and Curiosities: ‘the vast majority of the collections presently preserved in public museums derives from private collections’ (Pomian 1995:250). Considering moreover the narrowness of resources dedicated to the acquisition of collections by the state, their role is nowadays fundamental if we hope to preserve our contemporary art for the next generations. Unfortunately, their participation in Italy is not always promoted and propelled by public entities and the tools that could help fostering this relation are not well implemented. In this dissertation, at first it will be tried to define the external and internal reasons why in Italy the support to contemporary art is extremely lacking, especially if compared to other countries. Following the figure of the collector and his collection will be briefly identified and explained through the academic literature and diverse sources referring to the specific phenomenon. Then, the different tools proposed today by the Italian state to implement public collections with the collaboration of privates subjects will be underlined, trying to quantify their accomplishment. It will be then presented one of the most important and maybe unique example in our country of a balanced partnership between the public and private: Palazzo Grassi S.p.A.. For study purposes, the analysis will focus just on Palazzo Grassi, introducing briefly in the end the recent and interesting experience of Punta della Dogana. 6 1.1.1. Specific problems of the Italian contemporary art scenariocenario:::: when art is a merit memorial As it is underlined in the introduction, the role of privates in the art sector has been always crucial in times and still is considering the progressive disengagement of modern governments. Nevertheless, some specific problems and issues have been identified in Italy that make this involvement more and more important for the flowering of the sector and the survival of our contemporary art for the next generations. These issues will be analyzed afterward trying to compare the Italian situation with those of other countries where possible. 1.1. Predominance of classic art Everywhere and everyone in the world would describe Italy as the country of the Coliseum, of the Temples’ Valley, of the beautiful buildings on the Grand Canal in Venice. The fact of being for decades the first destination in tourists’ dreams all over the world is definitely due to the incredible richness of our cultural, artistic and architectonic heritage from the past. Nevertheless, it is fundamental for the growth and flowering of a country and its citizens to continuously foster art and culture, intercept the creative blood of contemporary generations and artists in order to remain culturally vital. In this disconnection is manifested the duplicity of Italian cultural policy: the protection and conservation of our heritage, sometimes even considered excessive, is not balanced by an adequate attention to the contemporary. It is not a case that almost the majority of the important Italian institutions dedicating to contemporary art originated thanks to the support and partnership of private operators