Indian investor buys lifetime rights to reclusive Italian artist
The rights to the entire life’s work of an Italian artist who has lived in seclusion for the past 18 years has been bought by an Indian investor. Arun Rangachari said he is building up an art collection with the intention of setting up an art fund in the future.
“I don’t know anything about art at the moment. I’ve just started learning,” said Rangachari whose other business interests range from media technology and commercial agriculture to adventure sports, Bollywood films and the theatrical rights to the Indian Premier League (ie showing cricket on large screens in public venues).
His first art investment consists of 40 paintings by the Italian artist Americo Montanari, with the option to buy many more. Montanari, 73, has exhibited his work only once, in Milan in the early 1980s. He then became a recluse, spending his days painting in a villa in Biella in the Piedmont region. He left his home only six times in 18 years, relying on his wife for food and other necessities.
“He felt the art world was too commercial for him so he retreated into almost complete isolation,” says Raja Khara, Rangachari’s partner in the art venture who discovered Montanari and his huge collection of unseen work when he noticed a “for sale” sign in front of the artist’s villa. “He had decided the place was too big for him and he couldn’t look after it properly any more,” said Khara, who bought the property from the artist and now lives in it.
Rangachari said he intends to build Montanari’s reputation before attempting to sell any of his work. The artist’s paintings are now being catalogued and there are plans for a foundation devoted to the artist which will be built on a property in front of the villa where Montanari lived for 18 years. This will include 3,000 sq. ft of display space for the artist’s work.
Rangachari says he also intends to stage an exhibition of paintings by Montanari in London later this year. Three international exhibitions will follow in 2011.
In addition to the money spent on the Italian artist’s work, Rangachari said he intends to invest “probably £8m to £10m” on art.
“The value creation that art affords the investor without the investor having to do anything is phenomenal. Art and real estate are the only two assets that have this dynamic. We’ve invested heavily in real estate. This seemed like the ideal opportunity,” he said.
When asked why his art fund would succeed when other ventures, including Indian-based funds, had recently failed he said: “Our entry level will be affordable, we’ll be focussing on artists who have not yet built a reputation and we will have no hidden costs, everything will be up front, so we’ll be quite different from everyone else.”
Picture: Montanari, Il Piacere del Nulla, 1985
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