Selling jewelry and art to the nouveau riche
November 11, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE current magnet for China's new rich and collectors is the lavish Shanghai Fine Jewelry and Art Fair, which overflows with opulence from galleries in China and around the world.
The man behind the event is Italian businessman Nicolo Mori who, with his partner Maximin Berko, started working on the event in 2006. The third edition ends today in the Shanghai Exhibition Center.
Mori told Shanghai Daily that he likes Chinese customers very much.
"They are like babies and they are very smart babies in the fine art market." He said he was taken aback and quite impressed by the efficiency of some "virgins" entering fine art investment and collecting.
"At the beginning they see and take all the information and then they come back knowing every bit of information that can be researched," he said. "If they want something they go for it."
He is accustomed to shallow, wealthy people buying a lot of works for empty walls in their mansions, without knowing the first thing about art. This phenomenon doesn't bother him in the least.
"It is new money, new rich. There are people buying to show off. There are also people who study and appreciate art because they like art. And there are also people who buy them and sell them later for investment. All of it is fine," he said.
If a rich woman buys a painting for her empty wall, someday it will draw her attention and maybe she herself will be awed by it as she shows it off, he said.
China's new rich just need time to cultivate their taste, he said.
It was 10 years ago that Mori first visited Shanghai during a trip to the Guangzhou Fair to get ideas for his own hotel in Sestri Levanre, Portofino, his hometown on the sea in Liguria, Italy.
Then he toured Shanghai and called it fascinating. Mori, an amateur photographer, says he can always find the "real thing" in Shanghai.
"Though China has a much longer history, in Italy we have preserved as much as possible to keep the past alive. I feel the charm and beauty of China is still there but it's been a bit forgotten."
In 2006 Mori and his friend Berko embarked on their mission to create the Shanghai Fine Jewelry and Art Fair. Each year, Mori stays for a couple of months in Shanghai; in summer returns to Italy and after the fair he goes to Brazil to be with his Brazilian wife.
Working in Shanghai can be a little difficult and frustrating for a foreigner. "You need to understand that here things are extremely fast and extremely last minute," Mori says. "Sometimes you have to restart and reschedule again and again. And that gives me a sense of insecurity because you never know if what you think is settled is really settled."
At the same time, "when you think there is no solution, there is a solution. Even one hour before you can change everything and find a solution," the Italian said. "You have to be very flexible, jump, run, change."
A graduate of the School of Economics at Luigi Bocconi University in Milan, known as "Harvard in Italy," Mori finds himself more into sales in his fine art and jewelry fair.
"I would like to establish a new reality that China does not have," he said. "Every important nation has this fair. And usually there is one very important city in every nation. While in Asia, the Shanghai Fine Jewelry and Art Fair is the only one that can count."
The fair exhibits both Western and Chinese art and Mori emphasizes that everything is authentic, with provenance, acknowledging the problems of faked antiques and antiquities in China.
"People have the right to doubt authenticity. Even if we come to a Chinese fair here and find some paintings that are very expensive, we might think they are fake," Mori said.
The Italian businessman compares China today to Italy in the 15th century, a period of prosperity when the arts and business flourished.
Nicolo Mori
Nationality: Italian
Age: 40
Profession: Businessman
Self-description: Generous, social, very easy to forgive and also forget. Ambitious to do certain things in life, not especially for money but achievement.
Q&A
Favorite Place: Yu Garden
Strangest Sight: People giving tickets randomly on the street for "massage."
Motta for life:
To love your brother as much as yourself.
How to improve Shanghai: The way people drive and the zebra crossing are the most dangerous things in the world.
The man behind the event is Italian businessman Nicolo Mori who, with his partner Maximin Berko, started working on the event in 2006. The third edition ends today in the Shanghai Exhibition Center.
Mori told Shanghai Daily that he likes Chinese customers very much.
"They are like babies and they are very smart babies in the fine art market." He said he was taken aback and quite impressed by the efficiency of some "virgins" entering fine art investment and collecting.
"At the beginning they see and take all the information and then they come back knowing every bit of information that can be researched," he said. "If they want something they go for it."
He is accustomed to shallow, wealthy people buying a lot of works for empty walls in their mansions, without knowing the first thing about art. This phenomenon doesn't bother him in the least.
"It is new money, new rich. There are people buying to show off. There are also people who study and appreciate art because they like art. And there are also people who buy them and sell them later for investment. All of it is fine," he said.
If a rich woman buys a painting for her empty wall, someday it will draw her attention and maybe she herself will be awed by it as she shows it off, he said.
China's new rich just need time to cultivate their taste, he said.
It was 10 years ago that Mori first visited Shanghai during a trip to the Guangzhou Fair to get ideas for his own hotel in Sestri Levanre, Portofino, his hometown on the sea in Liguria, Italy.
Then he toured Shanghai and called it fascinating. Mori, an amateur photographer, says he can always find the "real thing" in Shanghai.
"Though China has a much longer history, in Italy we have preserved as much as possible to keep the past alive. I feel the charm and beauty of China is still there but it's been a bit forgotten."
In 2006 Mori and his friend Berko embarked on their mission to create the Shanghai Fine Jewelry and Art Fair. Each year, Mori stays for a couple of months in Shanghai; in summer returns to Italy and after the fair he goes to Brazil to be with his Brazilian wife.
Working in Shanghai can be a little difficult and frustrating for a foreigner. "You need to understand that here things are extremely fast and extremely last minute," Mori says. "Sometimes you have to restart and reschedule again and again. And that gives me a sense of insecurity because you never know if what you think is settled is really settled."
At the same time, "when you think there is no solution, there is a solution. Even one hour before you can change everything and find a solution," the Italian said. "You have to be very flexible, jump, run, change."
A graduate of the School of Economics at Luigi Bocconi University in Milan, known as "Harvard in Italy," Mori finds himself more into sales in his fine art and jewelry fair.
"I would like to establish a new reality that China does not have," he said. "Every important nation has this fair. And usually there is one very important city in every nation. While in Asia, the Shanghai Fine Jewelry and Art Fair is the only one that can count."
The fair exhibits both Western and Chinese art and Mori emphasizes that everything is authentic, with provenance, acknowledging the problems of faked antiques and antiquities in China.
"People have the right to doubt authenticity. Even if we come to a Chinese fair here and find some paintings that are very expensive, we might think they are fake," Mori said.
The Italian businessman compares China today to Italy in the 15th century, a period of prosperity when the arts and business flourished.
Nicolo Mori
Nationality: Italian
Age: 40
Profession: Businessman
Self-description: Generous, social, very easy to forgive and also forget. Ambitious to do certain things in life, not especially for money but achievement.
Q&A
Favorite Place: Yu Garden
Strangest Sight: People giving tickets randomly on the street for "massage."
Motta for life:
To love your brother as much as yourself.
How to improve Shanghai: The way people drive and the zebra crossing are the most dangerous things in the world.
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