'The story can be almost as important as the piece itself': philanthropist Christian Levett on his approach to collecting

"In 2011, Christian Levett achieved what many avid collectors aspire to do one day and opened his own museum. Located in central Mougins, a medieval town in southern France, the Mougins Museum of Classical Art exhibited the British former investment manager's broad-ranging holdings that span antiquity, Modernism and contemporary art. In a surprising turn of events, the four-storey institution shut its doors in 2023 and was replaced by Female Artists of the Mougins Museum, which burgeoned from Levett's snowballing interest in works-abstraction in particular-by women artists of the Modern and contemporary periods."

"Levett began his collecting journey in his early twenties and he now owns around 1,700 works. A focus on prior centuries and civilisations has eventually expanded to pillar movements and geographies that have defined the art of the 20th and 21st centuries. In addition to abstraction by women, substantial real estate in his collection is given to post-war American art and the most cutting-edge works from Africa and the Zero movement."

"The collector displays a hefty portion of his recent acquisitions in the Florence palazzo where he also resides. A frequent attendee of Tefaf fairs, Levett is one of the speakers in this year's Tefaf Talks in New York, where he will join a panel titled Collecting with a Mission for Public Access."

"I bought a 1942 painting, titled Geneviève Pensive, by Françoise Gilot, privately from Christie's. One of Gilot's earliest pictures, it is a fantastic portrait from the time when she first met Picasso. It was exhibited with Madeleine Decrè in Paris in 1943, and, among many other exhibitions and publications, it is featured in the third episode of the 2018 National Geographic TV series Genius: Picasso. For me, provenance and story can be almost as important as the piece itself, and their combination can be the perfect storm."

A museum of classical art opened in 2011 in central Mougins, southern France, to display a collector’s holdings spanning antiquity, Modernism, and contemporary art. The four-storey institution closed in 2023 and was replaced by a museum focused on female artists, growing from the collector’s interest in abstraction by women in Modern and contemporary periods. The collector began collecting in his early twenties and owns about 1,700 works. The collection expanded from earlier centuries and civilizations to major 20th and 21st century movements and geographies, including post-war American art, cutting-edge African works, and the Zero movement. Recent acquisitions are shown in a Florence palazzo where he lives.

Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events