Interview: Richard Knight explains new joint venture with Fabrizio Moretti

“I very very much hope my relation with Fabrizio Moretti is going to be a productive one” said to Cfa former Christie’s Co Chairman of Old Masters and 19th Century Art Richard Knight, who has recently announced together with Moretti their brand new business partnership, a further proof that traders and auctioneers are getting closer not only in the realm of contemporary art.”We will be independent, but together” he continues, explaining that his office will be at the Moretti Gallery in Ryder street, London, and that he is keeping “his fingers crossed” for this new episode of his brilliant career.

 

A new art season is coming, and if on one hand it seems that emerging art will be not as hot as it has been in the last two years, on the other a lot of collectors are looking again at old masters and at more stable values. Which is your view on this new scenery?

 

I think old masters do represent stable investments. Their market has always been not as volatile as that of contemporary artists. I know it has been very dynamic and hugely profitable in the last two years, but for the last 40 years my world has been that of the old masters and it seems to me that I’ve been in a stable market, with just occasional deep and change in fashion. That is why I still believe in the old masters’ market.

 

And we supposed this trust is at the basis of your new business partnership with Fabrizio Moretti.

 

I regard Fabrizio as probably the finest of the younger generation of dealers in old masters paintings that I know, and I appreciate that he has a broad taste and interest in contemporary art too, which I think is a credit. To be associated with someone who is young, energetic, dynamic and evidently successful is a great opportunity for me.

 

What are you bringing to him, and what are you expecting to get?

 

Without sounding conceited, I have more than 40 years of experience in old masters paintings. I was an independent dealer for many years, then I was managing director at Colnaghi’s, which was a wonderful episode in my life. At the middle of the 90s my business partner Nicholas Hall and I took over Colnaghi in New York, where we were hugely successful in selling to American institutions. That experience is something that I would like to bring into this new venture. Fabrizio has himself been successful in selling to American museums, hence this is an area where we can develop the business together.

 

Anything else?

 

Yes, probably also a broad taste for the entire European painting. In the past 11 years at Christie’s, which was a very different perspective on the world that I love, I had to deal with European paintings over the past six hundred years. It gave me a great deal of knowledge and understanding not only of Italian art, that I love above all, but also of French art, Flemish art, German art and all the others main European schools of painting. I would encourage Fabrizio in the future to look at other schools of painting too. If we deal with the very finest things in all these schools they will certainly complement the core business, which is Italian art.

 

It seems that in recent years the differences between collectors, art dealers and auction houses are progressively fading away, doesn’t it?

 

Whether you are a dealer, whether you are an auctioneer, or a collector, or investor, the reality is beginning to be understood across the market that we all occupy part of the same world. And there isn’t today a division between the trade and the auction house; there isn’t antipathy between the two. The fact is, we work hand in glove with one another. My years at Christie’s showed me that relationships with the trade are multiple and the willingness of traders and collectors toward the auction houses, and vice versa, is a relatively new development. I think it is one of the most welcomed changes to the world we are living in. I don’t like that strict divisions between the different parts of the business. I think that it is important for us to develop the art market whatever role you do play, and make it attractive to a younger generation of collectors. I think that if collectors regard different fractions of the art market as opposed, this latter will seem less attractive to them. So I welcome this blurring of the edges between the trade, auction houses and motivations of the collectors. It’s important we all occupy one world and do it hand in hand.

 

Which is the role in this big change of mass distributed information?

 

The on-line has affected the art market dramatically. There are those who find the accessibility of the information about the art market disagreeable, especially regarding the prices. But I think there are many more advantages. The fact is, we live now in a global market. We have an emerging Far East market, which is going to become increasingly important and the fact we can communicate instantly and advertise our business with little difficulty right around the world is hugely important. The on-line world is something that the art trade generally has embraced, and must embrace creatively.

 

Which is your favourite museums at the moment?

 

I wouldn’t wish by making a choice to offend any director or curator, but obviously, as a UK resident and art dealer, I am very attached to my old National Gallery. And, when I travel, particularly when I travel in America, I am always through to be in the Metropolitan Museum. But I must say, my love of museums extends right around the world and I always believed that it’s a sad week when I don’t visit at least one museum. Last holiday my wife and I went to twenty galleries in France, and that was holiday… One of the most attractive things of my world is the endless learning.

 

 

September 7, 2015