8 FEATURE Two leading collectors of contemporary art in London have revealed their desire for their art to remain on public display in perpetuity. David Roberts, the Scottish property developer who last month inaugurated a new home for his collection in Camden Town, and Anita Zabludowicz, the wife of a Finnish financier and property investor who has shown her collection in a former Methodist chapel in Chalk Farm since 2007, both say they hope their collections will continue to exist as discrete entities long into the future. “I do want the collection itself and the foundation [that runs it] to continue. I don’t want a situation where I die and the whole thing gets sold off and disappears,” Roberts says. Zabludowicz says she has set up a “structure” which involves her children and includes trustees to shepherd the collection she has assembled with her husband, Poju, into the future. “Our intentions are [for it] to continue in the same direction, while at the same time, also [give to] institutions such as the Tate. It would not be our wish for our collection to be sold entirely or given entirely unless absolutely necessary.” <strong>The</strong> collectors, both of whom own around 2,000 works of international contemporary art and who organise regular, curated shows in the art spaces they run, are two of a growing number of art buyers around the world who are opening private spaces to show their purchases. It remains to be seen whether many of these galleries or the collections that fill them will survive past the lifetime of their founders. One art world insider who asked not to be named is sceptical. “Forever is a very long time,” he says. <strong>The</strong> longterm costs of displaying art, with all its ancillary expenses such as conservation, storage and insurance, are likely to deter all but the most committed from attempting to create a permanent display intended to survive after they are gone, he adds. <strong>The</strong>se costs make it difficult to even give art away for free. More than two years ago Charles Saatchi offered around 200 works, including pieces by Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry and the Chapman Brothers, as a gift to the nation with enough funds to THE ART NEWSPAPER FRIEZE ART FAIR Wednesday 10 October 2012 Forever is a very long time Building a great collection is one thing, but securing its long-term future is another matter. Leading collectors ponder the price of posterity. By Cristina Ruiz provide for the future cost of maintaining the art. But discussions with the government appear to have reached a stalemate. Crucially, Saatchi has no building of his own that could display his collection in the long term. Unlike Roberts and Zabludowicz, who both own the buildings they use to display their art, he has instead leased a succession of spaces for the various incarnations of his gallery, which is currently based in Chelsea. Despite the government’s failure to reach an agreement with Saatchi, sources say the collector remains committed to putting a large part of his collection into a foundation whose trustees will manage it, protect its future and ensure it is publicly displayed. Collectors seeking governmentfunded homes for their art have rarely been successful. In 1992, the Iranian-born Nasser David Khalili offered his Islamic collection, considered one of the world’s finest, to the British government on a 15-year loan on the understanding that the loan “Private collectors can move quickly, they have more money… it would be irresponsible for national museums to commit [to young artists] so early” would become a gift if a suitable building were provided. <strong>The</strong>se conditions were not accepted and Khalili withdrew his offer. Twelve years later he announced his intention to cover all the costs of setting up a museum in London himself “within five years” and to provide a multi-million pound endowment to cover the running costs. <strong>The</strong> museum never materialised. Museum partnerships Public collections have been built with the art bought by private individuals and today’s contemporary art collectors have a distinct advantage over museums such as the Tate when it comes to securing important works of our time. Private galleries complement public institutions, says Andrew Renton, the director of Marlborough Contemporary, who previously worked with the London collectors Freddy and Muriel Salem for 12 years, helping them to assemble the Cranford Collection. “Private collectors can move more quickly. <strong>The</strong>y have more money for acquisitions and they’re more ambitious in their purchases, often buying artists who are young and assembling large groups of their work. By definition it would be irresponsible for a national museum like the Tate to commit [to artists] so early; in a way these public and private spaces need each other,” Renton says. But today everyone is a collector and there is the thorny issue, rarely discussed in public, of whether museums actually want the art assembled by the plethora of contemporary art collectors active in today’s market. Speaking at a panel on private galleries at the <strong>Art</strong> Basel fair last year, the director of Tate Modern, Chris Dercon, noted that many buyers purchase and display works by the same trendy artists in spaces that all resemble one another. Private galleries are now everywhere, said Dercon. “<strong>The</strong>y have the same architects, the same white walls, the same works of art,” he said, adding that collectors need to be more discerning when buying art. He also noted that the programming in private galleries lacks the depth of museum displays. Public institutions can give art a context, he said, which is impossible for private collectors. “At the Tate we can show something contemporary from Brazil alongside a Mondrian. A private collection can’t do that because they don’t have a Mondrian.” Museums are also wary of collectors wishing to impose conditions on gifts or remaining involved in the management of their art once it has been transferred to a public collection. <strong>The</strong> part gift/part acquisition deal brokered by the dealer Anthony d’Offay with the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland in 2008 for a large collection of contemporary art divided into “artist rooms” which tour regional museums around the country is a rare exception. <strong>The</strong> ambivalence works both ways. Collectors who have tasted the thrill of running their own curatorial programme don’t want to see their art subsumed into a larger museum collection. “<strong>The</strong>re’s a possibility we’ll donate work to museums,” Roberts says, “but I don’t think I’d want to say: ‘Here’s the collection’, and give it to the Museum of Modern <strong>Art</strong> or the Tate. I wouldn’t want it to disappear in the vaults of some vast museum.” Instead, says Roberts, “I like the idea of doing things with regional museums which often don’t have the resources to buy contemporary art… there are a lot of great spaces outside London,” he says, noting that he has loaned works for an exhibition opening later this month at the Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire which has “a very good collection of works by Hepworth and Henry Moore but very few contemporary pieces”. Frank Cohen, the DIY magnate who has shown his collection of international contemporary art in an industrial estate outside Wolverhampton for nearly six years, once had plans to open a gallery in Manchester called the Frank Cohen Museum of Contemporary <strong>Art</strong>. Speaking to a journalist from the Independent in 2004, Cohen said: “I want to put right the situation that, outside London and people like Saatchi with his gallery, there are no privately run art galleries and collections.” <strong>The</strong> museum never opened due to disagreements with the developers who owned the building. “It would have been a great thing,” Cohen says. “It’s Manchester’s loss.” Now the collector says he “ha[s]n’t got a clue” what will happen to his collection in the long term although he hopes it will remain “intact” and that his children will “take it over and continue where I left off.” Meanwhile, Cohen is opening a London display space in a former milk depot in Bloomsbury with the art adviser Nicolai Frahm to host loan exhibitions and show art from both their holdings. <strong>The</strong> gallery should open within the next two months. Zabludowicz shares the desire for her collection, which focuses particularly on emerging artists, to be seen in multiple venues and she has recently started staging shows in the THE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION OF CONTEMPORARY & MODERN ART APPLICATIONS NOW ONLINE AT EXPOCHICAGO.COM Private collectors put on a show: “<strong>The</strong> Summer Sessions” at the Zabludowicz Collection (above), “A House of Leaves” at the David Roberts <strong>Art</strong> Foundation (left) and Saatchi’s leased space in Chelsea New York offices of her husband’s private investment group, Tamares. She has also launched an artist residency programme at Sarvisalo in Finland where she and her husband have a home. When asked to consider where she wanted her collection to be in 20 years’ time, she said: “I hope that it will be on display in many places and my current ambition is to loan even more works from the collection to public institutions so that as many people as possible get to see art that is being made right now.” Ultimately, the proliferation of private galleries has made more art accessible to more people, usually for free. Many of these spaces run education and outreach programmes and welcome students. Roberts, for example, is planning a research library in the Camden Town headquarters of his collection. However, only time will tell which galleries and collections are here to stay. • “A House of Leaves: First Movement”, which includes work by Louise Bourgeois, Thomas Houseago, Martin Kippenberger and Rebecca Warren, is on display at the David Roberts <strong>Art</strong> Foundation (until 10 November), Symes Mews, NW1 7JE. <strong>The</strong> foundation will stage performances of works by Nina Beier, Chosil Kil, Alvin Lucier, Eddie Peake and Steve Reich on 11 October at 7pm • “To Hope, to Tremble, to Live: Modern and Contemporary Works from the David Roberts Collection” is at the Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire from 27 October to 3 February 2013 • “Matthew Darbyshire: T Rooms” (until 2 December) and “Zabludowicz Collection Invites: Richard Sides” (until 21 October) are on show at the Zabludowicz Collection, 176 Prince of Wales Road, NW5 3PT NAVY PIER 19—22 SEPTEMBER 2013 ZABLUDOWICZ: PHOTO BY STEPHEN WHITE, DAVID ROBERTS ART FOUNDATION: © 2012 MARK BLOWER, SAATCHI GALLERY: © 2009 MATTHEW BOOTH, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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