american collectors | Rich American collectors see Cuba as a promising new art market

Rich American collectors see Cuba as a promising new art market







Expansion of private wealth has increased the number of collectors

Work of the Cuban artist Enrique Martínez Celaya - Reproduction of the internet / Tumblr
PUBLICITY


LATEST ECONOMICS

Entrance of the BNDES building in the Center of Rio
Photo: Pilar Olivares / Reuters / 6-9-2017 BNDES disbursement falls 32% to R $ 6.85 billion in the first two months of the year 03/21/2018 18:36

Steelworks in Shenyang, China
Photo: - / AFP Government prepares to protect Brazilian industry against steel imports 21/03/2018 18:34
Following Copom's decision, banks announce interest reductions 03/21/2018 18:27
 . Photograph: . With interest rates falling, Brazil will have to change saving habits and when it comes to taking on debt 21/03/2018 18:20
Key
NEW YORK - Ron Pizzuti, a developer in the US state of Ohio, may not wait until May, when he will hold an art biennial, to make his next trip to Cuba. A quick visit to "spot recognition" before the arrival of a hungry crowd may be worth it, he said.

Pizzuti, 74, owns about 100 Cuban works of art and last year opened a private museum in Columbus with an inaugural show dedicated to artists from the communist country. He has paid $ 5,000 to $ 200,000 over the past six years for works by artists like Enrique Martínez Celaya.



Ron Pizzuti - Scott Cunningham Photography
"I expect prices to increase as artists get more exposure," Pizzuti said. He and his wife Ann built a collection of 2,000 contemporary works over 40 years. "That's good for them, it's just not good for me." But it is inevitable when a new market opens up.

With the news that the United States will establish diplomatic ties and ease the economic barriers applied to Cuba, the art world is looking to Cuba, located 145 kilometers off the coast of Florida, as a promising new market. The expansion of private wealth increased the number of collectors who, in turn, boosted prices in the art market. In two weeks of auctions in New York last month, $ 2.3 billion in art was sold.

The thawing of relations "will have a huge impact because Cuba was a limited market in terms of who saw art in the galleries of Chelsea and Miami," said Alberto Magnan, a Cuban founder and co-owner of Magnan Metz, a gallery in Chelsea neighborhood, in Manhattan.

"That number will now become enormous.EASIER TRAVEL

With President Barack Obama's surprise political change, allowing US companies to do business in Cuba after an embargo of more than 50 US, travel restrictions will be relaxed and US financial institutions will be able to open accounts in Cuban banks. American tourists will be allowed to take home up to $ 100 in Cuban cigars.

PUBLICITY


Americans have managed to bypass the American embargo and bring home artwork legally because these items are classified as cultural goods. American collectors traveled to the country on educational or humanitarian tours. They also found curators or dealer dealers who received travel licenses from the US Treasury Department's Foreign Assets Control Agency.

Cuba must prepare for the influx of collectors, said Magnan, who has for years brought Americans to Havana to seek and buy paintings and sculptures. Magnan said he received at least 25 phone calls from collectors in the 24 hours following Obama's December 17 announcement. Their goal is to acquire works from emerging artists before they are discovered and their prices rise.

"They want to go to Cuba before things change," said Magnan, who represents Cuban artists such as Alexandre Arrechea, Roberto Diago and Glenda León. - So I'll practically stay in Havana for the next 12 months.

HAVANA BIENNIAL

The Havana Biennial, which is over 30 years old, will attract collectors and other visitors when it opens on May 22. Pizzuti said he wants to be there. On his first trip to Cuba, six years ago, he bought an art work made of hooks, from Yoan Capote, an hour after his arrival.

"There's a tremendous amount of talent," said Pizzuti, whose museum is planning another Cuban show for July next year.

Cuban art is undervalued, said Kaeli Deane, a Latin American art expert at Phillips auction house in New York. A sale of Latin American art in November 2013 at Phillips included a special section dedicated to living Cuban artists. Rated between $ 2,300 and $ 25,000, all lots were sold.

Prices are already rising. Sotheby's sold an abstract 1944 work by Wifredo Lam, who died in 1982, for $ 4.6 million in 2012, a record at the artist's auctions, according to New York-based research firm Artnet. Lam is the top-selling Cuban artist in the last 10 years, with six of his works in the top 10 in the category, according to Artnet.

PUBLICITY


Artists living in Cuba are legally allowed to sell their work internationally and market experts have said that implementing an improvement in services such as payment and delivery methods will take time.

Liz Klein, an art consultant at Reiss Klein Partners in New York who visited Havana in the company of collectors and curators at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and met with artists for five days in 2012, said anyone interested in Cuba should visit the country soon

"When the country really opens up, the scenery changes, and the Western dollars fix things, it will be worrying how fast the charm will be lost," she said.