Art & Design Inside Story Managing the Mix From Picasso paintings to flea-market finds, Linda Pinto’s vision for a Parisian flat would make her late brother, the maximalist decorator Alberto Pinto, proud. By Ian Phillips In the living room, the painting on the back wall, Corps de Dames by Jean Dubuffet (1947), overlooks a vintage Ruhlmann chair upholstered in an embroidered fabric by Pierre Frey, Portofino Camel The legendary interior designer Alberto Pinto was an inveterate collector. “I think he bought something every day,” says his sister, Linda, who took command of his decorating firm upon his death in 2012. “He would accumulate things without knowing what to do with them.” His passions included linen, silverware and porcelain services from France, England and Portugal. This legacy of collecting made Linda Pinto the right choice to design the apartment of an almost equally obsessive thirtysomething who lives close to the Champs-Élysées. “Collecting requires a lot of PHOTOS JACQUES PEPION 56 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
Right: the living-room painting is by Jean Hélion from the 1930s; the vintage Georges Jouve ceramic vases are from Thomas Fritsch Artrium in Paris; the walls are covered in straw marquetry panels by Lison de Caunes Below: the living-room tapestry (right) is by René Fumeron and the rug is a custom design by Pietro Scaglione patience and effort, but also brings great joys,” the client says. “It also adds a personal dimension to an interior.” The accumulation of objects in the Parisian flat the man shares with his wife and children is both remarkable and wonderfully eclectic. There are paintings by Picasso, Pierre Soulages, Lucio Fontana, Jean Hélion, and Marie Laurencin (the latter placed, surprisingly, in the powder room). There are also a pair of exquisite 18th-century Japanese lacquered cabinets, an Ado Chale coffee table, a smattering of Georges Jouve ceramics, a pair of Garouste & Bonetti armchairs, traditional African sculptures, and a Charlotte Perriand dining table at which the kids eat their breakfast. “We wanted a very Parisian apartment in the same spirit as Monsieur Saint Laurent or Jacques Doucet,” he explains. “Not excessively modern, but rather with an intellectual atmosphere.” The nearly 840sq m space certainly has an august past. It consists of what used to be two separate units, one of which previously belonged to an auctioneer. The Cabinet Alberto Pinto joined the two flats together and completely reworked the layout. Part of what was the former master bedroom is now a study, the former kitchen has become a dining room, and there is one immense sitting room in place of two smaller ones. “We love large spaces,” says Pinto. “We don’t have a problem with things being oversized.” Sipping coffee while sitting on one of the sofas, she reminisces about her late brother, whose clients included financier Michel David-Weill and the royal families of Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. One thing she strives to maintain at the 60-person firm is her brother’s devotion to craftsmanship. “It’s our DNA, and we don’t want to lose it,” she says. The shimmering straw marquetry walls of the sitting room are a perfect example, as are the apartment’s custom rugs that each took up to two years to fabricate. › CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 57
