Diane von Furstenberg in the piano nobile apartment of Palazzo Brandolini, photographed by Simon de Pury in Venice

The daughter of a holocaust survivor, Diane von Furstenberg shot to fame in the creative cauldron of 1970s New York, where she created the wrap dress that instantly became fashion heritage and partied with Andy Warhol and his Studio 54 crowd. Now based between NYC and Venice, where she is actively involved in the cultural scene, the cool-as-ice-cream DvF was photographed by Simon de Pury for our Winter 2025 cover in her home in a celebrated Venetian palazzo; she also painted the issue’s LUX logo with inspiration from her adopted hometown

LUX: You reached a position of power during the 1970s when very few women did. What shaped you to do that?

Diane von Furstenberg: Aged 22, my mother spent 13 months in the camps. She came back and she weighed 29 kilos. Nobody could believe she survived, but she did. Her mother fed her like a little bird.

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After six months, her fiancé came back from Switzerland, they got married and the doctors said, “You have to wait two or three years before you have a baby, because you’re not going to survive and the child will not be normal.” And sure enough, 12 months later, I was born. And so my mother used to say, “God saved me so that I can give you life. By giving you life, you gave me my life back. You are my torch of freedom.” So I was born with a torch of freedom in my hand, which could be a little heavy for a little girl, but actually it was a blessing because it forced me to be responsible for myself from day one. My mother taught me two things: fear is not an option. And the other thing: never be evicted. And that’s that.

Diane von Furstenberg photographed at her apartment in Palazzo Brandolini, Venice, 2025, by Simon de Pury

LUX: It is an incredible story.

DvF: So I live the adventure of my life and still today, this morning, in my diary I wrote, “I have such a strange life. I improvise every day.” I mean, it’s an improvisation that I decided to have Venice be the stage for the winter of my life. It’s not particularly original, because a lot of eccentric older women decided to live in Venice, but anyway.

The other thing about my life that I think is special, even at my age, is agility. I have written in my diary every day, all my life. Every year, because I’m born on New Year’s Eve, I choose a couple of words for the year. Two years ago, it was gratitude and clarity. Last year, what was it? Oh, intention, manifestation, and this year was strength, kindness, agility. Agility – especially today when no one knows what the fuck is happening – agility is very important.

LUX: A recent documentary about you was called Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge. What does being in charge mean to you?

DvF: To be in charge is first and foremost a commitment to yourself. It’s owning who you are. You own your imperfections; they become your assets. You own your vulnerability; you turn it into strength. It’s about being true to yourself, and it’s an ongoing process you need to practise every day. When you’re very high because you’re successful, you remind yourself, “Don’t believe your own bullshit.” And when things are tough, you say, “Ok, one door closed, another one will open.” Whatever is happening, you own it. You have no choice.

A photograph from an earlier time in Venice, from Diane von Furstenberg’s personal collection

LUX: You moved into the piano nobile apartment of the Palazzo Brandolini last year. Can you tell us about your relationship with Venice?

DvF: The first time I visited Venice, I was 17. We were tourists among others, visiting San Marco, having a delicious lunch in a garden, sliding through the narrow canals in gondolas, absorbing the beauty. I was silent, drinking it all in. But that day, something else was happening. I had fallen in love the night before with a handsome Italian boy and I felt I was a woman for the first time. From that moment, Venice, love and woman became linked forever.

Read more: A sojourn in Egypt

This, of course, is not original. Doesn’t everyone fall in love in Venice? Isn’t it the city where more love vows are made than any other? Three years later, Prince Egon von Furstenberg, the future father of my children, took me to Venice. His mother had a house in the countryside, but his aunt Cristiana lived in the most beautiful palazzo on the Canale Grande.

I will never forget walking into the piano nobile of the Palazzo Brandolini. I had never seen anything more grand, more glamorous. The carved ceilings, the frescoes, the walls with so much history, so many intrigues. I was not a tourist any more. It was the first week of September: the season of lunches, parties, balls and movie stars everywhere for the film festival; a rendezvous of beautiful people. I was in awe.

Diane von Furstenberg with her children Tatiana and Alexander, from DvF’s personal archive

From that moment, I came to Venice every year, enjoying the beauty, the exhibitions, the Biennale, the movies, the masquerades. I remember my first week with my daughter, an opera at La Fenice, a beautiful wedding in Torcello, my husband Barry Diller and I sailing into Venice on our schooner, the Eos.

LUX: You created a project for the Biennale Architettura 2025 on this idea of Venice as a woman. How did it come about?

DvF: I read a biography of Venice and discovered her history, creativity, courage and resilience. Some call her la dominante, Queen of the Adriatic or the Bride of the Sea. I identified her as the woman I admire the most, a woman I would like as a mentor, the woman I would have loved to be. To me she is the Serenissima, the ultimate symbol of femininity, elegance and brilliance, a resourceful creature who excels in balancing solution and seduction.

So it is my fantasy to imagine Venezia as the extraordinary woman who has been at the centre of history for 1,600 years, the alchemist who combined utility and creativity, who used her survival skills for triumph and glory. Carlo Ratti, curator of the Biennale Architettura 2025, was amused by my passion for Venezia the woman and invited me to conceive a project.

Diane von Furstenberg on the Eos in the Mediterranean with her husband Barry Diller

I researched and imagined the eight major roles Venezia the woman played in history. She’s the master of architecture, the brilliant maritime engineer, the opportunistic merchant that led her to be the financier banker. Above all, she is the muse – the creator of art, the diplomat, justice and, finally, Mother of the Republic.

With this vision, I went to my talented friend the artist Konstantin Kakanias, and asked him to paint the eight scenes of Venezia the woman. I then seduced Tiziana Plebani, historian, writer and true Venetian citizen, to write the stories of Venezia in the first person. Those beautiful artworks appear as large flags and float outside along the bookstore pavilion by New York architect Liz Diller for the Biennale 25. And the book is Serenissima: Solution & Seduction.

Read more: Arch Hades in conversation with Catherine Loewe

LUX: You have spoken about reinvention with Venezia, but is there also reinvention in yourself?

DvF: Definitely. My life now is a reinvention, deciding Venice would be the stage for the winter of my life. Venice is also the original startup innovator, founder of all the logistics of the past millennium, from banking to diplomacy, and I think it has a role to play in the future. So I can assemble a lot of people here and I can try to elevate the debate and that’s what I am now very interested in. Being in charge was always a movement I carried through, but I’ve also discovered the power of kindness. Kindness is a currency. And like money, it compounds, it compounds, it compounds. Generosity is the best investment. Now the movement is about being in charge and the power of kindness.

Diane von Furstenberg on her balcony overlooking the Grand Canal, 2025, photographed by Simon de Pury

LUX: As you see Venice as a woman, does that link to how you see your fashion career?

DvF: It’s not really fashion that interested me, it is woman. Two years ago, there was an exhibition about me and my work in Brussels, where I was born, made by a young curator, Nicolas Lor, and he called it “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman Before Fashion”. I’m much more interested in the woman, and so my fashion is timeless.

LUX: Who is the DvF woman?

DvF: She’s many women, but she’s the woman in charge, she’s on the go. And she’s sexy. But she could be many, like all of us, we could be different people. She could be a boss lady. She could be a diva. She could be a hostess.

LUX: You launched your iconic wrap dress in 1973. Women then didn’t have many clothing options in the corporate world. Now there are more, yet we still gravitate towards the wrap dress. Why, do you think?

A portrait of Diane von Furstenberg wearing a maxi version of her iconic wrap dress in the 1970s

DvF: Listen, I made the wrap dress, but really, the wrap dress made me. First it was a little wrapped top and then it was a little wrapped top with a matching skirt, and then I turned it into a wrap dress. It’s all about the fabric: printed jersey moulds the body and moves so that you look feline. It looks nice on the body. First, there’s the quality of the fabric, then colour and print, then the style. The style should be very simple: designed, but looking effortless. For a woman to be beautiful there are three things: eye contact, smile and body language.

Read more: The heart of London’s art circuit at the Royal Academy

LUX: Have you ever felt self doubt and had to pick yourself up?

DvF: At least twice a week I wake up and I feel like a loser. You know, only losers don’t feel like a loser, but it doesn’t last. So I constantly question myself. Growing up, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew the feeling of the woman I wanted to be. I wanted to be a woman in charge. It meant I could travel, I could pay my bills, I could have a man’s life in a woman’s body. And I got that by the time I was 27. Because it was a dress that gave me that, I would go around selling the dress. The more confident I was, the more confident I made millions of women because of a dress. So early on, it became a conduit for me, but I was taking women with me.

A pencil portrait of Diane von Furstenberg for LUX by Jonathan Newhouse

LUX: When have you feel most proud in your career?

DvF: When I was on the cover of Newsweek aged 27 and they compared me to Coco Chanel. And after I sold my company and started again in 1998 and suddenly it was the young girls who grabbed it, I was proud. Recently, I was proud of the exhibition and Venezia – so, things like that. I have such an odd life, such an odd destiny. That’s why your most important relationship is with yourself, and I advise everyone to write their diaries. It’s important.

LUX: How was your relationship with Andy Warhol, who famously made a silkscreen portrait of you?

DvF: About Andy Warhol, everybody asks, “Oh, how was it?” Well, Andy Warhol was very shy. He was not at all an actor. He was a spectator. He would take pictures of you. He would tape you. You know, he didn’t speak very much.

The 16th annual DvF Awards class photo, 2025

LUX: Do you think the fashion world is reinventing itself or doing the same thing?

DvF: Fashion became such a huge business. For 13 years, I was the head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Then I resigned. Because with the digital world, it didn’t make any sense to show clothes six months in advance, when everything happens immediately. I just took over my company again – another reinvention. It’s important because DvF has a very strong identity and vocabulary, and it’s important to control the product and the narrative.

Read more: Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda’s art manifesto

LUX: And having retaken it, is there anything you’d like to change?

DvF: I just want more of it, more of it.

LUX: Which designers have you admired?

DvF: There are many. I grew up with Yves Saint Laurent and Kenzo, and the most talented couturier of all time is probably John Galliano.

“Listen, I made the wrap dress, but really, the wrap dress made me” – Diane von Furstenberg. Photographed by Simon de Pury at home

LUX: Their ethos or their design?

DvF: It’s usually the way they see the woman. It has to do with the woman because, in the end, it’s clothes, isn’t it?

LUX: What is the legacy you’d like to leave?

DvF: Probably for women, I was lucky to become the woman I wanted to be. And I hope I have helped and inspired other women to be the women they wanted.

LUX: I think you definitely have.

DvF: Thank you.

dvf.com

Interview by Candice Tucker

Photography by Simon de Pury

The historic Burlington House on Piccadilly, which houses the Royal Academy of Arts, featuring the courtyard statue of the RA’s first President, artist Sir Joshua Reynolds

To the hundreds of thousands who visit its exhibitions every year, the Royal Academy of Arts is a must-visit museum on the European art circuit. Like its peers at the top of the art world, it has created shows that have redefined the art scene, including ‘A New Spirit in Painting’ in 1981 and 1997’s ‘Sensation’; more recently, it has hosted blockbuster solo shows by the likes of Marina Abramović and William Kentridge – both, coincidentally, artists who have created cover logos for LUX. But the RA has a lesser-known jewel in its crown. As the name says, it is an academy – an art school, probably the world’s most respected – with studios housing artists on a three-year immersion course in its premises at the heart of Mayfair. It even has its own design technology studios and sculpture kiln. Eliza Bonham Carter, the celebrated Director of the RA Schools, was invited to create the LUX logo for our cover this issue, while Renoir Saulter, one of her students, imagines his own working of our cover on these pages

Follow LUX on Instagram: @luxthemagazine

“The breadth of talent that comes from the RA Schools is amazing, from Constable and Turner to Millais, and now to Michael Armitage, Rachel Jones and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. In the life-drawing room, we still have the original benches where Constable and Turner learned to draw”

– Batia Ofer, Chair, Royal Academy Trust

“The Royal Academy Schools is an independent postgraduate school of art that offers a three-year programme. One of many remarkable aspects of the school is that it remains free of charge to all who study with us. We support speculative practice, experimentation and the possibilities of learning through making. The central focus is the studio, where each student explores their own practice supported by an academic structure and our specialist workshops. Our graduates go on to contribute meaningfully to culture in many ways, including through exhibitions, teaching, writing and curating”

– Eliza Bonham Carter, Director, Royal Academy Schools

“Being at the RA Schools is like a great plate of scran shared with the family or a cold pint after some hard graft. The experience is fruitful, mind-bending, hardcore and cosy. The whole staff, security and tutors really make the place feel like home”

– Renoir Saulter, artist and student, Royal Academy Schools

Reimagined LUX covers, with logos by artist and RA Schools student Renoir Saulter, and cover photograph of Batia Ofer by Simon de Pury

royalacademy.org.uk

Batia Ofer, photographed at home by Simon de Pury, London, 2026

Batia Ofer combines collecting art with making people’s lives better, in a way nobody else can match. The Chair of the Royal Academy Trust in London is also founder of the Art of Wishes, for which artists create works that are auctioned to raise funds to fulfil the dreams of critically ill children. She speaks with LUX Contributing Editor Simon de Pury about collecting, charity and how art has the possibility of helping to heal a fractured world

Simon de Pury: When did your personal passion for art begin?

Batia Ofer: I think that passion has been there for a very long time, and I can’t quite put my finger on when it started, but I grew up in an art-loving environment. My grandfather loved Matisse so much he named my father Matisse, which I think attests to that love of art because it’s not a very common first name – even though my father is no artist, but you know…

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So I grew up with a love of art, but I think it’s been in the past 20 years that I’ve become focused on becoming a collector. Even more so after my father-in-law, Sammy Ofer, passed away. My husband suggested I manage our part of his father’s collection, as I am the one who is more passionate about art. And I decided to take it even more seriously because I had to, given the collection my father-in-law had amassed. He was a revered collector and had done an extraordinary job collecting some unbelievable masterpieces.

So I needed to think: how do we take that forward? Sometimes people freeze and they don’t know what to do. You see a lot of great collections being sold when the collector passes away. But we wanted to continue that journey. In the beginning, I was trying to follow in my father-in-law’s footsteps because I thought that was the right way to go. But then I became more daring and started thinking of what distinguishes us as people, as collectors, and the story we want to tell. And I started taking the collection in a different direction.

Portrait photography by Simon de Pury

SdP: I remember your father-in-law fondly. He was an extraordinary, wonderful man, and his eye for quality and sense for major works was very impressive. The scope of the collection now is fascinating, because you go from established names to exploring contemporary art in depth, including artists who do not yet have an established track record. Each part carries the handwriting of the person who put it together. But how does it work with your husband? Sometimes you have couples that collect, but I feel it is ultimately an individual task and one person has to make the decisions.

BO: I would say I’m probably the more active collector of the two of us, but we always discuss the works we are going to buy. If I am convinced there is a work that needs to enter the collection, I will make a strong case for it. And I think, over the years, he has learnt to trust my judgement. But then one of the last works we bought is something he saw that wasn’t even on my radar. Still, I would say that most of the collection is what I bring to the table. And yes, you are right, some names are more established; some are lesser known. It has been a journey. I always try to buy the best possible examples of artists that I’m interested in. So it’s not just buying the artists, it’s also looking for the best examples by that artist.

SdP: Yes, even the greatest artists have good days and bad days. So, ideally, you want to buy a work done on a good day by a good artist. What struck me is the works you have chosen are all works done on a good day.

BO: Yes, and I’ll give you an example. [Sigmar] Polke was very prolific. And while he is, in my opinion, one of the geniuses of the mid-to-late 20th and early 21st centuries, there are some great works he did and some less good ones. And I would like to think that all the ones I have are particularly good examples of his work.

Batia Ofer with Stormzy, D’Rita Robinson and Robbie Robinson, celebrating the Kerry James Marshall exhibition, 2025

SdP: I agree. Polke is one of my favourite artists – he’s what I would call an artist’s artist. He has been hugely influential for so many young contemporary artists and I love to see the impact he’s had. You also work with artists in your various charitable projects, particularly the Art of Wishes. How did you come to create that and to then collaborate with artists?

BO: Make-A-Wish is a charity that is close to my heart. And when I moved to the UK 13 years ago, I thought, how do I help the charity, which is a charity that fulfils wishes for children with life-threatening conditions – and for me, what really connected me to Make-A-Wish was the personal story of the children. Being a collector, I realised that the strength of my relationships lies in the art world, and that’s where I can make the most impact. And, you know, artists are very sensitive human beings.

Read more: Jennifer Shorto’s highlights of the Cora Sheibani collection

So I went from gallerist to gallerist. At that time I wasn’t well known in London, but I made appointments with galleries I knew and also with galleries I didn’t know. I asked them to choose an artist and I would meet the artist and present them with 30 synopses of different wish stories. So let’s say, Arthur, eight years old, had leukaemia; his wish is to go on a trip in Africa and see elephants. And I would say to the artists, you choose the story that really touches you most. If you can be inspired by the story, make a work based on it. And that became the first Art of Wishes gala. We had unbelievable participation: Tracey Emin was inspired by a girl called Grace and donated three works. Idris Khan, Gillian Wearing and Michael Landy all participated.

SdP: You have raised millions through Art of Wishes. But the most beautiful thing is you have fulfilled the dreams of so many children in some desperate situations and have brought joy and hope not only to the children, but to their families and support. And you have demonstrated how art can play this therapeutic role. And I’m idealistic and obsessed with art because I feel it showcases the best of what we humans are capable of.

A pencil portrait of Batia Ofer for LUX by Jonathan Newhouse

BO: Yes, 100 per cent. We even had a girl named Poppy whose dream was to have her own art exhibition, and we did that for her with Christie’s, where she showed her art and sold the works. I mean, imagine for a nine-year-old girl to have a show at a major auction house. And we gave her art lessons with artists. Chantal Joffe, who is also a Royal Academician, met her and gave her a lesson.

SdP: It’s beautiful. And speaking of the Royal Academy, I am always stunned by how many major artists have been a part of it. How many Royal Academicians are there at any time?

BO: There are around 130 Royal Academicians, Honorary and Senior – a combination of artists, architects, sculptors, printmakers. Some of the greatest architects are Royal Academicians, from David Chipperfield to Norman Foster to Peter St John of Caruso St John. We even have architect groups like Assemble, Thomas Heatherwick, and there’s Ron Arad. That’s why I love the Academy. You get to interact with Royal Academicians like Sean Scully, an unbelievable painter, and Tony Cragg, a great sculptor.

Then there’s Antony Gormley, Tracey Emin, Jenny Saville, Rose Wylie, Hurvin Anderson, Michael Craig-Martin and Lubaina Himid, who is representing Great Britain at the Venice Biennale this year. In fact, Jenny Saville RA, Marina Abramović Hon RA and Michael Armitage, who’s both RA and a Schools graduate, are all having shows during the Venice Biennale, too. One of the greatest joys of being involved with the Royal Academy is having that interaction with artists. For me, it’s a privilege to be involved with such an institution.

SdP: Ron Arad, whom I have loved and admired for many, many years, is one of my favourite Royal Academicians. And I’m always so amused that his own initials are RA.

BO: Yes, so it’s RA RA!

Batia Ofer with RA Interim CEO Natasha Mitchell and RA President Rebecca Salter at the RA Summer Exhibition Preview party, 2025

SdP: You have been so influential as a philanthropist and as a collector, do you have a big or unfulfilled dream still?

BO: Well, I hope one day to have an art foundation. I believe art is a facilitator for real dialogue, and I think we miss real dialogue in society today. I feel the world has become very polarised. A lot of it is because of social media and people are not listening to one another any more. There’s a lot of anger, there’s a lot of hate but there’s no real dialogue. I think art not only helps us advance as a society and become better as human beings in understanding one another, but, as well as that psychological benefit, it can open people up to be more willing to engage in dialogue. So I want to have an art foundation where work can be displayed and bring people together. It might sound idealistic, but through art you can create conversation and facilitate difficult discussions that people don’t want to have any more.

Read more: Bentley by LUNAZ review

SdP: Yes, I find that once you know more about what artists are doing in different parts of the world of different backgrounds and upbringings, it brings people together, fosters better understanding and creates bridges.

BO: And ideally it brings people to collaborate and, through collaboration and dialogue, to make an impact. I believe in the soft power of art. I really believe that art is a tool for us as humans, not only to feel better, but also to bring a better understanding between people.

Batia Ofer at an event for her Art of Wishes charity with Jadé Fadojutimi, who contributed a major piece; Larry Gagosian, who helped secure both Jadé Fadojutimi and the Jenny Saville; Jenny Saville, whose artwork for the charity sold for £800,000; and Anna Weyant

SdP: If you had to define yourself by one word, what would you say characterises you most?

BO: Well, two words: positive impact. I want to have positive impact.

SdP: I love that. You know my interest in astrology. Can you tell me your zodiac sign?

BO: Cancer.

SdP: And my interest in numerology, so what is your actual birthday?

BO: 06 07 74.

SdP: Fantastic.

BO: So what does that mean? Cancer is very sensitive, home-oriented, family-oriented, right?

SdP: It actually says a lot. I remember that your father-in-law was a Pisces. I always loved his date of birth because it was 22 02 22.

BO: Correct. And we are both water signs, my late father-in-law and I. Pisces and Cancer are supposed to get along very well.

Batia Ofer with Grayson Perry RA at the RA Summer Exhibition Preview party, 2021, which the two co-chaired

SdP: It’s a very good combination. And I think it gives your collection a lot of coherence between the part you have inherited and the part you and your husband have created.

BO: And my husband is a Libra, which has a very high aesthetic sense, right?

SdP: Yes. My ascendant is Libra. We love art and harmony, we’re always in quest of beauty.

BO: I think my ascendant is also Libra.

Read more: A tasting of Joseph Phelps wines with Maison President David Pearson

SdP: I think so. It makes a lot of sense. So I would love to hear what you view as your mission as Chair of the Royal Academy Trust?

BO: Well, the Royal Academy is a unique institution. We have amazing blockbusters and curatorially important exhibitions. From October, after the Summer Exhibition, we have ‘Painting the French Riviera’, which obviously goes back in time, but the previous year we had Kerry James Marshall Hon RA, a one-off, an unbelievable retrospective.

SdP: I loved that show, it was amazing.

“I thought, how do I help the charity? I realised that the strength of my relationships lies in the art world, and that’s where I can make the most impact” – Batia Ofer

BO: And while he was in the main galleries, we had ‘Kiefer/Van Gogh’ at the Burlington Gardens side of the building. Currently in the main galleries we have Rose Wylie, the 91-year-old artist – still in her prime and hailed for her bold, distinctive vision; and in the smaller galleries, Michaelina Wautier – now widely recognised as a major rediscovered 17th-century talent. These two exhibitions create a powerful dialogue between female artists across centuries. So we have all these different shows – and we have an art school, the Royal Academy Schools. Art is being made in the same place.

I can give you an interesting story that, during the Kerry James Marshall show, he suddenly realised he hadn’t signed one of his paintings, and the curator, Mark Godfrey, said, well, let’s go down to the Schools and borrow a paintbrush from one of the students. So they went down to the Schools and Kerry ended up spending a good few hours with the students.

The art school is amazing – it’s a three-year postgraduate programme, which is free of charge, and the breadth of talent that comes from there is remarkable. The Royal Academy has existed for more than 250 years. So from Constable and Turner, who went to the Schools, to Millais, to now Michael Armitage, who is going to be exhibiting at the Venice Biennale; to Rachel Jones, who recently had a show at Dulwich Gallery; to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, who already had a show at Tate Modern. And in the life-drawing room, we still have the original benches where Constable and Turner sat and learned to draw.

Also, by the way, it is housed in one of the most iconic buildings in the UK, in the heart of Mayfair, at the heart of London, with some of the most beautiful gallery spaces in the world. So it’s an extremely special place where art has been made, exhibited and debated independently, as an artist-led institution with no government funding for more than 250 years. My mission is to secure that forever.

Batia Ofer for the Summer 2026 issue of LUX with the logo designed by Eliza Bonham Carter

SdP: Wow. And you have a new Artistic Director?

BO: Yes, Helen Legg, who is joining us from Tate Liverpool in June. It’s very exciting. I’m really looking forward to working with her. Simon Wallis, who joined as CEO last year, is putting together a great senior leadership team. He was previously at the Hepworth Wakefield, which he was the Founding Director of, and built into a great success story. We also have our first female President, Rebecca Salter.

SdP: And you have a female Chair! So it’s a really exciting moment in the glorious history of the Royal Academy. And when I think back on a life spent in the art world, some of the most seminal exhibitions I’ve seen have been at the Royal Academy. I think of Norman Rosenthal, who organised so many great shows there.

Read more: Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda’s art manifesto

BO: Yes, like ‘A New Spirit in Painting’ in 1981. The Georg Baselitz I have in the entrance to the apartment was first displayed there.

SdP: That show was so influential for the development of contemporary art. And, of course, ‘Sensation’ in 1997 was sensational.

BO: Sensational, yes! And a sensational point about the Royal Academy Schools is the breadth of our international students. We have a student from Taiwan, one from Bosnia and other students who are Iranian, American and Polish. The whole place is so interesting and after all this time I am still mesmerised by it.

royalacademy.org.uk

Olaffur Eliasson photographed for LUX in his Berlin studio by Simon de Pury

Olafur Eliasson is an artist of global renown, a former breakdancing champion, an academic and a passionate champion of the planet. Simon de Pury, auctioneer extraordinaire and long-time LUX collaborator, creates art collections for the world’s super-wealthy and runs celebrity charity auctions with a biting silver tongue. De Pury travelled to Eliasson’s Berlin studio and home, where the two discussed light, communication, birthdays, art and the human rights of the planet’s plants and creatures

Simon de Pury: First, a question I often asked when I was interviewing someone for a job: if you could be an animal, what would you be?

Olafur Eliasson: I would be a jellyfish, I think. They move so graciously and they’re very slow. I like that a lot.

The Serpentine Pavilion lamps, 2007, by Olafur Eliasson. Photograph by Simon de Pury

SDP: I heard that you have a winter birthday.

OE: Yes, the 15 February.

SDP: So that makes you Aquarius. Do you follow astrology?

OE: No, I don’t. It’s remarkable that everything always fits. It’s a little bit like fortune cookies. It’s always nice… it’s like: you’re going to meet a friend next week. That cannot be wrong. But I think the question is whether we have room in our life for matters that don’t really fit into Western science.

Read more: Interview with Claire Ferrini of Astrea London

I think Western science falls short of providing a safe future. You could refer to indigenous knowledge, for example, or knowledge about trees, the forest, the cyclical nature of weather and seasons, and how to treat nature and so on. It is remarkable to observe that these knowledges are considered absolutely non- functional or non-important by the rationalised or pragmatised minds of Western society.

And it turns out that there is a lot of insight into happiness, success and health that indigenous knowledge addresses. The trees are not as simple as we humans thought they were. And this gives us a great opportunity. When we see a tree, instead of saying, “Oh, there is a tree, what can I use that for? Can I make money with it?”, we can become crucially aware that if we indeed keep exploiting or extracting nature, we are going to ruin our own livelihood, the wellbeing of the planet.

The first set of designs for the LUX logo by Olafur Eliasson

SDP: I recently saw a Belgian businessman who is based in Brazil. He was discussing a project with an Amazonian gentleman who told him: listen, I first need to consult the trees. Once the trees gave a positive feedback, they were able to kick off their project.

One of the most fascinating experiences I’ve ever had is when I attended the annual Summer Nights gala you curated for the Fondation Beyeler. You staged an incredible environment just for that one night and your sister provided amazing food.

When we entered the room where the dinner was to take place, everything was in black and white. We suddenly experienced the world as if we were colourblind. The weirdest thing was eating food when it’s only black and white. You got up and started to give a speech, you pressed a trigger and colour reappeared as by a miracle! I have no clue how you pulled that off.

The playful evolution of Olafur Eliasson’s LUX logo designs

OE: Yes. White light, like sunlight, is the spectrum of all the colours of the rainbow. If the white light missed a colour in it, then it would miss in the rainbow. We know Newton’s lens with the prism [where white light enters the prism and emerges on another side separated into the colours of the rainbow].

White light is the visible area of the electromagnetic spectrum. Each colour has a special wavelength, measured in, I think you call it a nanometre. This is how light works, right? There is a yellow light in the yellow spectrum that is 100 per cent monochromatic. In our eyes, we have what are called receptors for light: we have blue, red and green. We actually don’t have yellow because the mix of red and green produces yellow.

Read more: 180 years of history with Penfolds

If you have this monochromatic yellow light and there’s no other white light, you are, in fact, only seeing a black and white image. Humans are capable of seeing more grey tones than colour tones. That’s why a black-and-white photo by Ansel Adams can sometimes look more real than the same photo in colour.

So you realise that our eyes really influence our brain to interpret visual information – say the food on your plate. The vegetable, you thought, is green because it appears to be in the shape of an asparagus. But actually it could be an orange carrot. This means that I already have a predetermined opinion about what I’m looking at and that influences what I’m looking at. Perhaps this is why we have a hard time changing our mind. It is what the brain tells us we are seeing. That’s interesting, because it suddenly throws up that reality is relative. For me, it shows how you are the author of your own responsibility with regards to what and how and why you see. You can choose to change your view.

The final Olafur Eliasson design for the LUX logo, as seen on the cover of our Winter 2025 issue

SDP: At the Summer Nights gala, we all had under our seat a Little Sun. Can tell us about it?

OE: Occasionally, I have organised events using a little handheld solar lantern called Little Sun. It’s a handheld little power station, which has a solar panel, strong and qualitative. The Little Sun project was to advocate and build awareness around sustainable energy. So it also has that little educational offering to have confidence in solar panels. Because 15 years ago, when we were testing the very first slides, some people would say, well, I don’t believe in solar panels. Now everyone knows what a solar panel is. We have delivered one million off-grid lanterns in sub-Saharan Africa. A large amount of our lamps – I believe one-third – are distributed at no cost in places where there is no economical infrastructure, such as refugee camps. My co-founder of Little Sun, Frederik Ottesen, has now for many years lived in Zambia to build this.

SDP: When Sam Keller, Director of Fondation Beyeler, introduced you that night, he said, “Olafur Eliasson is a 21st-century Leonardo da Vinci.” In your practice as an artist, an activist, an environmentalist – in your multiple activities, who do you measure yourself with?

The complete sphere lamp, 2015, by Olafur Eliasson. An open woven basket afixed to a circular mirror that creates a ‘complete sphere’

OE: I am really grateful for what I have been doing. My studio in Berlin has a 30-year anniversary this year and I’ve been very focused on how to give back to younger artists, their conditions and teaching at art school. I have my amazing studio team; I have the same two gallerists that I started with: Tim Neuger & Burkhard Riemschneider here in Berlin, and Tanya Bonakdar in New York. I admire people like I admire the jellyfish for its easygoing way of swimming. I never was very focused on competition or the idea of the heroic act.

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I am momentarily very inspired by the structural language specialist, the late Marshall Rosenberg. I’ve thrown myself into quite an intense study of this founder of nonviolent communication. It is about speaking and acting without inflicting judgment or threatening people you have disagreements with. I think art can address, not just the feelings that people bring to the room, but also their needs. There is much less likely to be a conflict or a polarisation, if we can state our needs fundamentally.

Needs can be very personal: we want to have a life, we want to be acknowledged, we want to be healthy, we want an education, and so on. I have a need for silence, because I get anxious if I don’t have silence.

A portrait of Olafur Eliasson by Jonathan Newhouse, for LUX magazine

SDP: One of the reasons I’ve always loved art is that art is one thing that can bring us closer together. To hear you speak now about nonviolent communication is riveting. I didn’t realise that this was also part of your focus.

OE: It’s a recent development. I keep finding out that the world is quite amazing. I remain humble and grateful for the many opportunities and in particular for the incredible career I’ve had. And there are many, many collectors and artists and friends and gallerists and museums who have believed in me.

Read more: Why preventative healthcare is essential 

SDP: It’s extraordinary to realise that your career already spans 30 years. Your list of achievements is phenomenal. What are your dreams going forward?

OE: Klee did this Angelus Novus, of the angel that faces the past and the wisdom of the past, but, in fact, flies backwards into the future. That was the kind of conservative idea of what is a good life. You learn from the successes of the past. The late philosopher and anthropologist Bruno Latour said that, considering the fact that modernity created the climate crisis, we actually can maybe conclude the past wasn’t quite as successful as we thought. The ground is trembling, it is collapsing right underneath our feet. I hope to have the courage to keep reinventing myself. And my biggest wish is that people still want to, and consider that relevant.

‘Shadows travelling on the sea of the day’, 2022, by Olafur Eliasson, installation view, Northern Heritage sites, Doha, from a group exhibition for Qatar Museums’ Qatar Creates, 2022

I just looked at a cartoon where a small dragon sits on the back of the panda, and the dragon asks the panda: what do you like the most, the path, the journey, or the destination? The process or the goal? My generation grew up with these questions. We said it was about the process and not the destination. The panda says, it’s the company. It illustrates the fact that we are, more often than we think, stuck in our own paradigm, and that prevents us from seeing things anew. That’s why I also named my recent show in Tokyo “Sometimes the river is the bridge”.

Hope alone is not going to change much. I believe you need to take action yourself, to get out and do it; to not only look at the horizon, but down and around, and learn from those you disagree with, find mutual company and make a movement. Then you can create change.

SDP: I always look at artists as mediums, as I feel that artists see things we don’t see yet. Artists, on the whole, are directed to the future. I feel all your activities are directed towards the future. It’s so interesting with what you said about hope. One always says hope is what dies last.

Eliasson with his 2007 ‘The Serpentine Pavilion lamps’, 2024. Photograph by Simon de Pury

OE: I think that in many ways it is also about love, to admit we all have a need for love. Maybe we need a care economy that would cater for caring for future life on this planet. There are some companies that aspire to make nature the chair of the board. There is a lot of legislative work being done by grassroots organisations, such as the charity ClientEarth, founded by James Thornton. It represented the air of London by suing the UK government for having too many pollutants. It’s a famous case. There are many countries where rights of personhood are becoming part of the legislation. Non-humans, such as mountains or rivers, have rights of personhood to protect against human intervention. I like this idea that we humans are not so exceptional any more. For one project called “Future Assembly”, I worked with others to propose that the Human Rights Charter is rewritten so that every part of the world should have a seat at the table: animals, the sky, the ocean – they should speak up for their rights.

Breathing earth sphere by Olafur Eliasson is a permanent public artwork on Docho island, South Korea, created specifically for the island’s volcanic topography, from 13 Nov 2024; “Olafur Eliasson: your curious journey” is at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 7 Dec 2024- 24 Mar 2025; aucklandartgallery.com

Olafur Eliasson Studio

An artwork by Minjung Kim installed over the fireplace in the residential side entrance lounge of the Waldorf Astoria

LUX Contributing Editor Simon de Pury is also an auctioneer, art dealer, curator, photographer and DJ. He was most recently commissioned to curate a collection of art for the newly restored Waldorf Astoria in New York, which will open to residents in 2022. Here, he discusses the project’s concept and challenges, and his favourite places to see art

Simon de Pury

1. Where does your curatorial process generally begin?

Once the topic of an exhibition is defined you go about making in your head your dream selection. The minute this is done you answer as many practical questions as possible in order to produce a cost estimate and a timeline. The rest is all implementation.

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2. Can you tell us more about your concept for the Waldorf Astoria?

The concept for the Waldorf Astoria was dictated by its own history, and by the design that Jean-Louis Deniot had conceived for it. It was the owner’s wish to work entirely with original works done specifically with the space in mind.

An artwork by Philippe Decrauzat from the Waldorf Astoria collection.

3. How do you see the artworks interacting with the building’s architecture and history?

The proof will be in the pudding. Both the owners and the designer wanted artworks that would blend seamlessly into the Art Deco architecture of the building and the interior design that had been devised for it. They gave a clear preference for subdued colours and abstract works.

An artwork by Benjamin Ple from the Waldorf Astoria collection.

4. What’s the most challenging aspect of this particular project?

There is an abundance of rising artists in the world, so narrowing our focus to a select few was certainly a challenge, and a luxury.

Read more: Richard Mille’s collaboration with Benjamin Millepied & Thomas Roussel

5. If you had to choose one piece from the collection, what would it be and why?

I have a particular fondness for the work of Minjung Kim. Her technique is uniquely refined and her work combines her Asian cultural heritage sensibility with a feminine sensibility. I like every work she has done for the Waldorf Astoria and would be hard-pressed to pick one.

Mountain by Minjung Kim from the Waldorf Astoria collection

6. Where’s your favourite place in the world to see art?

Basically wherever I happen to be. I love seeing art being lived with in private homes. My favourite museum is the Neue Galerie in New York. The quality of the art is breathtaking and the scale is intimate enough to make you feel as if you are in a private home.

Find out more about Simon de Pury’s work and the restoration of Waldorf Astoria: waldorftowers.nyc

Artist Philip Colbert in his studio

London-based contemporary artist Philip Colbert works within the self-defined movement of ‘Neo Pop Surrealism’. His distinctive, wildly vibrant aesthetic speaks of a hyperactive age swollen with imagery, media and symbols. His oil paintings are chaotic, visual overloads, creating imaginary surrealist dreams of swirling Colgate toothpaste roads, falling currency signs and laugh-crying face emojis.

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The exhibition “Hunt Paintings” presented by Unit London at the Saatchi Gallery pop-up in Los Angeles, coinciding with this month’s Frieze art fair, brings together a diverse range of artworks, including large-scale paintings, sculptures, and a virtual reality experience which transports viewers into ‘Lobster Land’. The title makes reference to the old master hunt scenes, depicted in works by artists such as Reubens. Reflecting on the violence of these scenes, Colbert’s collages teeter on the edge of nightmare, reflecting on the darker side of pop culture that lies beneath the sheen, slogans and humour.

‘The Year of the Lobster’, a collaborative work with art auctioneer Simon de Pury, is the most striking satire and an exhibition highlight. The surreal video is an art auction come pop song come music video, ridiculing the art world, consumerist society, advertising and modern day paranoias as de Pury calls out brand names and slogans, continually asking the viewer: “You do like that lobster, don’t you?”

Installation shot of ‘Hunt Paintings’ by Philip Colbert at Saatchi Gallery, Los Angeles

“Philip Colbert – Hunt Paintings” runs until 11 March 2019 at the Saatchi Gallery pop-up, 8070 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles. For more information visit: theunitldn.com/whats-on

Check out the next issue of LUX magazine, on sale from May 1 for a fabulous collaboration with Philip and Charlotte Colbert.

Lenny Kravitz performs at the 2017 Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Gala, with DiCaprio (centre) and Madonna (right)

Whether painting, music or immersive experiences, artists – and the art they produce – play a huge role in raising hundreds of millions of dollars for some of the world’s most deserving charities, says art auctioneer and LUX contributing editor Simon de Pury

Simon de Pury

I’ve done the auction for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Gala for the past four years in St. Tropez. It has raised in excess of $100million for environmental issues. You know, we can try to save everything else, but if we don’t have a planet, there’s not much to save, so I find it very surprising that what should be probably our primary, main concern is just so low down the pecking order of people’s preoccupations. But Leo DiCaprio is probably the most important fundraiser for environmental issues in the world. It’s the longest auction of any auction that I do – people arrive at nine o’clock and it goes on till past 2am. So it’s a real marathon, because not only are there top artworks (he’s a very active collector, so all the artists donate their best works), but also experiences. There are once-in-a-lifetime experiences like going to the gym with Madonna or playing tennis with Federer.

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And the evening is interrupted by little musical intermezzos. So, last year Madonna gave a fantastic concert halfway through, and then the whole thing ended at 2.30am with an incredible concert by Lenny Kravitz. Once that was finished, the after-party kicked in with DJ Cassidy and there was the after-after-party at the home of Dmitry Rybolovlev. We were the first to leave at 7am. But the party was in full swing!

There’s more money in that tent than at any evening in New York. The combination between high-net-worth individuals – Russian oligarchs, people from the Middle East, former Soviet states, Latin America, America, Europe – mixed with top actors and top models, creates an electric, exciting atmosphere.

The other one that is very exciting is the amfAR Gala in Cannes, which always takes place at what I view as possibly the most beautiful hotel in the world: Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. The artworks are displayed in an incredible way. Coming out of the hotel, you see an alley leading down to the sea, and at the bottom of the alley is the star work of the auction. One year they had a Damien Hirst, the famous mammoth; another year, a huge sculpture by Jeff Koons. So, you can really show the works in a spectacular way, and once the guests come they all mingle on that beautiful alley.

The artist Joe Bradley – there is a long waiting list for his work, and he had a big show at Gagosian in Geneva – donated a really fantastic work for the auction. And it made €750,000, which is basically the price you have to pay if you’re lucky enough to be given the chance to buy one.

The other highlight of amfAR every year is when Carine Roitfeld curates a fashion show. And this year it was with 31 different designers, and she picks the theme, and she picks the dresses. One year it was all in gold; one year it was multicoloured; one year it was red. And then all these top models come down the stairs and walk up and down the catwalk and the stage with the most unbelievable music, and so it creates a fantastic atmosphere. And then, once all of the models are on stage, I come up and stand in front of them and start the auction. That’s by far my favourite moment as an auctioneer in any auction.

Supermodel Winnie Harlow at amfAR in Cannes this year

This year was the 25th anniversary of amfAR to raise money for Aids. Another Aids-related charity I’ve done auctions for is the Elton John Foundation. He invites 70 or so people to dinner in his home, outside London. It’s very intimate. He usually pairs up with another musician – John Mayer, Annie Lennox, Andrea Bocelli – and then he comes and plays himself. It’s really nice if you’re invited to a private dinner, so people pay a lot of money for their seat there – much more than they would for a larger gathering. During those evenings, we just sell three or possibly four items. So the main way of raising funds is people getting there.

The Elton John Foundation is one of the most effective foundations on the calendar in terms of research for Aids. He has been relentless for years and years with his Foundation, raising funds. It is remarkable just to see what he has done and how much he gives of his own persona, how much he gives of his own funds.

Read more: Behind-the-scenes of Maryam Eisler’s latest book “Voices East London”

For Aids there’s also the MTV RE:DEFINE annual charity auction. I do it every year in Dallas, in cooperation with the Goss-Michael Foundation, founded by George Michael and Kenny Goss. That is also a fun event because you always have each year an artist that is being honoured. This year it was Tracey Emin.

And the Robin Hood Foundation Benefit in New York raises the biggest amounts; you just have all these hedge-funders in the room and they say, ‘Now we’re going to put the numbers there… please put your pledges,’ and then bleep. ‘You’ve just raised $72million dollars, thank you so much.’

In terms of the cancer charities, there is Denise Rich, who founded Gabrielle’s Angels in New York. I do the Angel Ball auction every year. She takes the Cipriani Downtown, 650 people for a seated dinner. She had the whole Kardashian family coming last time – the whole family except Kim – and they are very close to her, which is very rare. One year she had Pharrell Williams performing and suddenly he said to me, “Simon, come on stage. I want to sell a dinner with me!” And all the women became crazy, screaming. Then Usher said, “I’ll join the dinner as well!” And that second impromptu auction raised more than the regular auction.

The Beyeler Foundation Summer Nights Gala in Basel, Switzerland, is the most original of any fundraiser, because director Sam Keller asks one artist to take over the whole museum and transform it for one night, which means that only as a guest do you get to see what the artist has done.

One year it was Olafur Eliasson and you arrived and everything was black and white, as if we were in a black and white movie. We sat down and started eating the food – black and white. It tastes bizarre when you don’t see the colours. Eliasson said, “Now you know what the world looks like without colour.” And then there was a total blackout and he said, “Look under your chair.” And everybody had this little lamp, and he switched a button and suddenly all the colour came back. The food started tasting very, very good the minute you saw the colour. It’s the most bizarre experience ever. He also did artworks just for that night, paintings all in different colours. All this was created just for the night.

I also love doing the New Museum Spring Gala in New York, because of the artists who attend. Very often you sell great art at these events, but you have no artists in the room – maybe one or two. But the New Museum event is carried by the artists. This year were three of my favourites – all women. Julie Mehretu, Cecily Brown and Elizabeth Peyton, who is my favourite portrait artist today. If you had to choose who would be your dream person to do your portrait, she would be top of my list, and the New Museum had shown a mid-career introspective of her. Besides that there was new work from Jeff Koons, from George Condo… there were something like 55 artists in the room.

In terms of the contemporary art world, the New Museum Spring Gala is possibly the most exciting one, because personally I always find that the most rewarding thing in terms of what we do is the contact with the artists themselves. Nothing is more stimulating. They have such a fresh way of looking at everything. And that’s what I love, because, after all, without the artists all the rest is meaningless.

Simon de Pury is an art auctioneer and collector and the founder of de Pury de Pury. Find out more: depurydepury.com

Kate Upton at the 2017 amfAR Gala Cannes

Charity art auctions are taking off around the world, and for the best and worst of reasons, says Simon de Pury, himself the world’s leading philanthropic auctioneer

Simon de Pury

In times past, the main philanthropic efforts in the art world used to be confined to the US, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is fiscal encouragement for individuals to make charitable donations in the US, which is not the case in Europe. And more importantly it is an integral part of the entrepreneurial educational philosophy in the US, that if you are successful, you give back.

Any successful person in any area in the US is expected to have one or two causes to which they contribute some of the fortune they have made. But over the past 10 years, things have changed. More and more wealth has been created around the world, and the art market has consequently become more global. This means I have witnessed efforts in philanthropy around the world increasing dramatically.

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It is very gratifying to see, and in many cases to be involved with, cultural institutions that organise regular fundraising events. We also see increasing numbers of organisations of friends of museums, whose main task is to raise funds for philanthropic and charitable causes. In some cases, these are to benefit the institutions themselves; and in others, funds are raised for important causes that are not adequately funded through governments.

Perhaps the ultimate art philanthropist is Maja Hoffmann, who has devoted so much energy to the new LUMA Foundation in Arles; designed by Frank Gehry, it is going to become a cultural art centre of major importance. She also funded the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles; and she is a donor to MoMA and the New Museum in New York, and the Kunsthalle in Zurich. She supports these institutions not just in financial terms, but also by putting together sophisticated programs. She is a shining example.

The amfAR 2017 Gala in Cannes

Then there is the growing area of non-cultural philanthropy, one in which the art world is becoming increasingly involved. It’s not a recent development (although it has been growing exponentially recently) . The art world was the first to mobilise in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when Thomas Ammann, an art-dealer friend of Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn, set up amfAR, which has raised great amounts of money over the years.

What is striking about the art world is that some artists have themselves made significant donations. Damien Hirst donated a beautiful golden mammoth which Len Blavatnik bought for $16m at the amfAR auction in Cannes in 2014. It’s now at the Faena hotel on Miami Beach and something of an Instagram magnet. It also happens to be one of best works in the Damien Hirst oeuvre. Hirst is the most generous artist I know; he has donated many millions of dollars’ worth of art to various charities over the years. Tracey Emin is also immensely generous, as is Chuck Close, who never holds back in supporting causes close to his heart. There are many others, too; artists these days are solicited on a daily basis to donate works to various causes.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Madonna at the 4th Annual Saint-Tropez Gala organised by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 2017

There is one lingering anomaly, at a time when we should all be highly concerned about the future of the planet: the fact that only three per cent of global charitable donations go to environmental causes. Leonardo DiCaprio is leading the way in devoting time and energy to raising awareness of the poor state of the oceans and other environmental issues, and I have had the honour of being auctioneer at the four large charity auctions he has organised in St-Tropez over the past four years.

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David Beckham arriving at the 2017 amfAR Gala

What is significant about these auctions is that they include works by artists such as Jeff Koons, Urs Fischer and George Condo, many of whom donate very substantial works. In 2016, of the 20-odd works on sale during the live auction, 15 were donated and 12 of them set new auction records. This shows that people are not simply buying art at these auctions as a charitable act – they are buying top works, which makes it sustainable and gives it extra purpose. Leonardo manages, through his status, not only to obtain top donations, but also to bring in potential purchasers from all over the world. In that tent in St-Tropez on the gala evening, there is a greater concentration of money than at the big auctions in New York.

What is increasingly extraordinary about these events is how global the audience is now. High net-worth individuals are coming from all over the world, with more and more attending from Russia, the former eastern bloc, the Middle East, China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Latin America and all over Africa. It has really become a global effort.

All of this also raises awareness, and once awareness spreads it becomes easier to raise funds. Offices that look after HNIs all now have specialists in philanthropy to advise their clients how they can help. People are getting drawn in for different reasons. Some people pay for the artworks because they just want the artwork. But increasingly individuals want to take responsibility because governments are not. One of the reasons philanthropy was initially more widespread in the US is that most institutions there depend on private donations, there being no public funding. In Europe, public budgets used to be much bigger, but with cuts, individuals have had to step in.

You can also see this with the instant mobilisation that takes place when something happens, for example the recent refugee crisis. Some artists are galvanized into action by such crises – Ai Weiwei has made a movie and marched on the streets of London together with Anish Kapoor. It’s the future.

Simon de Pury is an art auctioneer and collector and the founder of de Pury de Pury. Read more of his columns for LUX here.

Three paintings by Russian artist Erik Bulatov in his 2015 show ‘Bot’ at de Pury de Pury in London

The time is right for the art auction world to embrace the new digital technologies and take auctions online. That is the way to tap the vast reserves of potential new buyers, says our columnist Simon de Pury

Conceptually, I find myself fascinated by what is happening in the online world within the art market. This is a market that has been the most resistant of any to the digital revolution. And the likely cause of this is that it’s in nobody’s interest, in terms of the market’s key players, to make any changes to the way the system works.

But progress cannot be postponed forever. We have seen the rise of a number of companies that have focused on the online side of the art world. The pioneer of all of them, artnet.com, started 27 years ago with a price guide for artists’ works. For having information at your fingertips, they were the pioneer. Then you have companies in the auction space such as Artsy, Paddle8 (which recently merged with another online auction company, Auctionata) and Artspace which is also doing online auctions. The main auction houses also have an online side to their business.

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The difficulty that the main bricks-and-mortar houses have is that the minute they have a really exciting collection or group of works, their own specialists will fight to have it in their main sales rather than seeing it go to the houses’s online business. So already they effectively have internal competition built in.

Recently I teamed up with Arnaud Massenet, a co-founder with his ex-wife Nathalie Massenet of Net-a-Porter. Arnaud is a passionate collector with a strong interest in art, and so we have put on a number of auctions which we have held online with our company, de Pury de Pury. I also conducted the three first annual benefit auctions for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. The first two were bricks-and-mortar auctions at which we raised $26m and $40m respectively. With the third one, which we did both live and with an online component, we raised $48m for the foundation. There were challenges such as having to develop a site that could handle the massive increase of traffic you can expect if you have a project involving a celebrity of the stature of DiCaprio. It was a good stress test for the online infrastructure. We have also used a mix of live and online sales for benefit auctions such as for the Fondation Beyeler in Basel.

Right now we believe in this hybrid model, but when you sell art works of quality, and when you put sales together that have been curated, you have to give the chance to potential buyers, if they wish, to see the works physically. You cannot just dispense altogether with offering that possibility to your potential purchasers. The approach is very much to have a stunningly staged physical exhibition, and at the same time, as enticing as possible an experience for the user who will participate solely online.

When you buy and sell artworks at a price range between $10k and $2m at auction with the main houses, you have to leave quite a considerable amount on the table in terms of the buyer’s premiums that need to be paid – 25% on top of the hammer price. Surely for works in that price bracket there must be a more efficient way of selling art, which should eventually put pressure on the commissions.

While the very top end of the market will always be about privileged personal relationships rather than internet sales, I believe that over the next two to five years we will witness a big transformation of the art market, involving a massive increase of its online component.

Read next: The greatest tasting of Masseto in history

At the moment, when you look at an auction online you have a very static image of the auctioneer and the experience is rather boring. This could quite easily be made to be much more lively, fun and animated to engage those who might bid from their office, home or swimming pool or from wherever they are following the sale. This will no doubt happen very soon. Online auctions will become a little more like some of the talk shows on American television, which are live and where you have a studio audience. Having an audience creates the atmosphere that comes across when you watch the programme, with laughing, cheering and clapping, so making it more of a show.

This is not so much of a radical transformation as some people may think. The big auctions now are packed with people filling the sales room, but as soon as you get above a certain price level most of the action takes place on the telephone. You just have the trade and some collectors who want to follow the market closely who remain in the room. So the challenge is to convey the atmosphere of what is happening and the mood of the room. The more successfully you can convey this, the easier it will be for people to get that feel without physically being there.

Photographs from Mario Testino’s show ‘Heat’ at the Dubai Design District, 2016

A key element is trust. The reason why some online auction companies have not been successful yet is that there is no trust in their expertise or track record. It is essential that such a record is established so that trust develops. A lot will be down to curating: at the moment online art and auction sites just have too much content, and need to have a clear curatorial vision. Once a track record for both buying and selling is established, it becomes much easier, because before that point is reached, you have to make ten times the effort for a tenth of the result. From my 16 years at Sotheby’s, I know that when you work for one of the main players of the duopoly [Sotheby’s and Christie’s], 80 to 90 per cent of the interesting works automatically cross your desk. You just have to make sure that you win slightly more often than you lose. What you lose gets sold by the other auction house. It is difficult for a newcomer in the online world to crack that.

Certain genres of work such as editions, prints and photographs lend themselves to online sales because, while you still need to get a condition report, you will likely have already seen works from that edition so know exactly what they look like. The minute you venture into genres where uniqueness plays a role, such as paintings or other one-off artworks, it changes. Also, the borders between various categories of contemporary culture are breaking down, so architecture, cinema, fashion and music now all cross over with art. We will have many more collaborations between these categories and the internet lends itself to this situation, as breaking down these barriers is done so much more easily online than in the bricks-and-mortar world.

The entry point of the internet is much less forbidding to those who fear crossing the threshold into the art world. It is much less intimidating than going into an auction house and brings many new potential buyers to the market. In one year, the number of individual clients at one of the big auction houses may be around 20,000 – that is an estimate, but in any case it’s a very small number and shows you how that the art market has a massive potential to grow. There is a very small group of individuals who are willing to pay $100m, or more, on a single work. There are slightly more people who are willing to pay $50m on a single work. Further down the scale, you have more people still who are willing to pay $10m, and many players at $1m. There is a huge number of people who do not collect or buy at all and who have no interest, to date, in spending part of their wealth on art. That suggests that the potential growth of the auction market is substantial, and new technologies are the best way to enlarge that art-buying public.

Simon de Pury is an art auctioneer and collector and the founder of de Pury de Pury
 depurydepury.com

The investment potential of the best art will just keep on increasing, says Simon de Pury, one of the world’s most renowned auctioneers, as art becomes ever more aligned with high luxury.

Simon de Pury

Art is the ultimate luxury. You don’t need it to live, which is a definition of a luxury. And in the past few years other similarities between the art market and the luxury market have emerged.

Ten years ago you would go to different – not luxurious – parts of town to see art. In New York you would go downtown; in London you would go east for certain exhibitions and galleries, for example. Now, though, in the art business you need to be very central for the same reasons as you do in the luxury market: it’s all about location, location, location. Thus the concentration of top galleries that are installing themselves in Mayfair in London, while in New York there is a return to the Upper East Side. There’s a lot of artistic activity focusing on these areas because when the international traveller comes to town, he stays in the heart of the city, goes to the top hotel and wants to have everything in an immediate circle, and wants to not have to waste too much time pursuing these passions. So all of that has had an impact, changing the market quite fundamentally. Galleries are now seeking real estate in the same locations as the top luxury brands.

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Art is also the ultimate luxury because you get emotionally involved, and if you go about it smartly it can be a very rewarding passion. Rewarding in every sense.

Erik Bulatov, Rouge a Levres, 1994, pencil on paper

In concurrence with these developments, the art market is changing also. The market has become global, so for the first time you now have people from all parts of the world buying art from all parts of the world. Compare this to the Cold War, when some artists in the east had no idea what was happening in the west: you had artists working in total isolation. Today there is much easier access to knowledge and information about what is happening in different places through the digital revolution. And this has fuelled further internationalisation. You have biennials in Havana, Sydney, Shanghai, Venice and Istanbul. There is a now a great exchange of information and knowledge, and with knowledge comes a greater interest in acquiring.

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The information that used to be accessible to a small group of insiders is now much more easily and much more widely accessible. As a result, if you look at a list of the most affluent people in each country, 20 years ago there would have been a relatively small percentage of those who were collectors, whereas now if you look at the same lists, there’s a much bigger percentage collecting. And it’s also that which gives art the ultimate status. You can be a very successful businessman, yet it will never give you the same kind of kudos as you get when you are building a great collection. It’s your cultural achievements that leave your biggest mark and your imprint, and that is one reason why individual collectors in different parts of the world have become the main cultural movers and shakers – much more so than the main institutions.

Erik Bulatov, Perestroika, 1989

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Nonetheless, there are factors any collector should be aware of. Your collection is your self-portrait. Collecting is an artistic, creative pursuit in itself. By collecting you show who you are and give yourself an identity. For that reason your collection cannot be put together by a committee: it has to be one person who takes the decision of what to buy and (just as important!) what not to buy. Equally, having a professional adviser who is very familiar with the market can help you avoid making mistakes and can help you to navigate the market, so it makes sense for people who have built substantial collections to have either in-house or external specialists that they consult. But even so, it is important that the person who is building the collection follows their own instincts. I often see people who start collecting becoming as knowledgeable as anyone else in the market.

There are questions of a market readjustment. Whenever the market becomes stronger and stronger there are always moments of readjustment. No market just goes vertically up without any fluctuations. And, of course, tastes evolve as well, so what is regarded today as the most desirable things may not be regarded as so in 50 years. Having said that, if you buy only the best quality you can only do well, because you can analyse it statistically from the 1850s onwards and see sufficient documentary evidence that the prices of major art transactions just keep going up. Still, there are some masters of the past – not just artists of our times – that we value much more highly today than 50 years ago. But be aware: there will always be artists who are like a fashion phenomenon – once the initial excitement dies down, so do the prices.

Simon de Pury is an art auctioneer and collector and the founder of de Pury de Pury. depurydepury.com