Collecting Stories: The Renaissance Women. When CURA Art met Valeria Napoleone

Founded with the principles of access and community, CURA Art utilises a broad network and expertise to support collectors with all aspects of managing their passion and investment.  Whilst many of the collectors we know and work with choose to remain private, several have generously allowed us to share their stories with you, to inspire others and encourage open discussion on the role of the collector in the 21st century. The aim of the Collecting Stories series is to de-mystify the world of collecting, but also represent the many different approaches to acquiring and patronising the arts.

Collecting is so much more than amassing beautiful or interesting works of art and objects; collectors have the opportunity to invest in the future and document the past and present– through this series we hope to bring this to light.  

Valeria Napoleone is a collector, patron and philanthropist who has focused her collecting on elevating and promoting the voices of women artists working internationally.   

Born in Varese, near Milan, Valeria now lives in London with her family and has firmly established herself in the UK arts sector as an avid supporter of many of its institutions. She is ardently focused on re-addressing the imbalance of supporting and championing women artists, by acquiring their work as well as through targeted initiatives.

Valeria’s patronage has established a strong collection of female contemporary artists and through this process she has formed an exceptionally close bond with them along the way. She has provided critical support to the careers of many of today’s most acclaimed artists including Phyllida Barlow and Margarita Manzelli. She emphasizes the importance of investing in contemporary artists and building a relationship with them, stating that it’s important for her to ‘be connected to the reality of my time’.

Alongside her role as collector, Valeria is concerned with supporting artists and institutions; acknowledging her position in the wider arts community. She is a patron to a number of international organisations; as a Board member of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and as Head of the Development Committee at not-for-profit gallery Studio Voltaire, and an avid supporter of institutions such as Nottingham Contemporary, the South London Gallery and ICA London.

In June 2015 Valeria launched ‘Valeria Napoleone XX’, which brought together and formalized these philanthropic initiatives under one umbrella. The aim of the platform is to work towards increasing the representation of female artists in major public institutions; its name highlights both collaboration and the female chromosome. Launching in partnership with the Contemporary Art Society, their combined initiative is an on-going commitment to purchase and donate a significant work by a living female artist to a different UK museum each year.

For us, Valeria represents the type of collecting that we strive to encourage through our business – responsible, conscientious and creative and we were lucky enough to meet Valeria in 2019 as part of a guided tour of her home and collection.

Looking back, do you feel like collecting was a natural or inevitable thing for you to do, did you collect as a child?

No, I never collected as a child. And actually, it came totally as a surprise. If I go back to my teenage years, I would never have thought I would be so deeply involved in art collecting and patronage. But looking back, I really can see how this passion developed, because I grew up in Italy with my family, who were not art connoisseurs, but were really interested in antiques and were buying for their houses, especially 15th and 16th century furniture and paintings, so I was really surrounded by these beautiful objects. I was really interested in those, but not as a collector, just really in the beauty of it. They were pure objects, there was no artist involved. When I started looking at contemporary art I was in my late twenties in New York, doing a masters in Gallery Administration at the Fashion Institute of Technology, it was the mid-90s when I was living there and it was actually quite a moment there, especially for women artists – artists like Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Liza Lou – they were getting a lot of attention. I was fascinated and excited about these new languages being brought to the table, something totally different, compared to the minimalist and abstract expressionist. For me, it was this art made by women that I was most excited about. So I started to notice it, and for two years, whilst doing my masters, I just listened, looked and learned about contemporary art, how to run a gallery, what curators do. I went to galleries, met a lot of artists and really familiarised myself with the subject.

So how did this develop into collecting and patronage?

I spent two years considering what role within the art world I wanted to take on. So, after these two years, I started collecting, and obviously it came really very naturally at the time, I focused on my interest and that was connecting with the artists and their work. Since the very beginning I focused on female artists, it was not a strategy, it was not something that was rationalised, it was really the result of an evolution during these two years studying the subject and understanding what made me excited which was works by female artists, and realising as well that women artists were marginalised in museums and commercial galleries. I could not understand that because of gender, women were not looked at.

Collecting came very fluidly in my life, very organically, but it is very important to me that people understand that my collection and also my activities as a patron, go towards work that I think is excellent; great artists, great practises, artists that contribute something to the world. These artists are great artists, no matter what gender or ethnicity they have, or where they come from. This is what I dedicate my energy and commitment, time and resources to, to great art that happens to be by women. In contrast to my families collecting, I was interested in the artist themselves, and the element of the artist being alive. I can connect with the artist personally, I can sit and discuss the work, I don’t have to speculate, I don’t have to try to figure out or make out what the artist’s intention was, I can simply ask.

I realised early on, how much I cherish the discussion with artists. It starts with a show or an exhibition, then I visit the artist’s studio, and it’s really about building a relationship. It goes on and on for years and my role with them develops from collecting to patronage. I am as much a collector as I am a patron, these are of equal importance in my life. Contemporary art gave me the opportunity to become a patron of people, and so to start a journey with individuals that will last up until my grave, or whilst I have the energy and resources to do it. It’s a journey of discoveries, self-growth, a journey with a lot of people. After over 23 years of being a collector and a patron of different organisations and supporting artists with projects and endeavours, my journey has been with a lot of people. This is what I am very proud of, to be a part of a community and create a web of support around me, a family, that supports my collection and my projects as a patron. I would also say that I was born as a collector, in the right place at the right time and also that it is a real commitment.   

Do you feel like a custodian for the works of art? Do you feel a responsibility towards the artwork and the artists?

Absolutely, this is one of the differences between being an art buyer, and being an art collector. You really feel the responsibilities as part of taking care of the work. It’s like your children, you don’t just give birth to them, you support them in their future endeavours, in their dreams, in growing and achieving things. My art works and my artists are the same, it’s not just about acquiring the work, this is just the beginning. The whole role then explodes and grows into supporting the artist through conversation, their publications, projects, museum shows, and also supporting them also through lending their work to museums and institutions for shows. My collection’s artworks travel constantly around the world. I feel this is my duty, because the artists I buy are often starting their journey, or if not starting, they’re overlooked, so it is my duty to give visibility to the artist’s work. Another way I think has been very powerful in my life is hosting a lot of dinners in my house in support of artists or projects or institutions; getting people together, connecting people and hosting ‘in conversations’, seminars, etc in my home.

What do you envisage or hope for with regards to the legacy for your collection?

The collection is a work in progress, I know it is now over 400 pieces, and I know that my children may not be really interested in continuing what I’m doing because it’s such a personal journey. To really take on their shoulders the whole responsibility of such a big collection - and hopefully by the time I slow down, it’s going to be even bigger than it is now, as it’s growing constantly. I’ve been trying to figure out what the legacy would be, and of course I’m building on it. I’m dedicated to this, and from the very beginning in the nineties, when I started collecting, I said to myself ‘Valeria, you’re going to have a collection that is a choir of female voices’, and this is what I am building. And now I am thinking in another twenty years, where will the collection be? Will it be all together? My dream is to keep it all together, maybe a few pieces my children will have. I’ve never been interested in opening my own museum. I think other institutions needs more help than me. I’d be more interested seeing the collection end up in one or two institutions, certainly the biggest bulk of it together, and being seen as a whole as a collection that has a specific direction, taste and ideas – it’s a very personal collection, and not one that ticks the boxes! It’s a collection that expresses my personal taste and creativity and my vision. More than the sum of its parts, it’s important as a whole.

 I still feel like a young collector and I need to do so much more and I’m looking forward to that - and keeping focused on how to be a better collector and developing as a patron - doing things that are as impactful as possible.

Just like the Renaissance women that came before her, Valeria is adamant to use her position and resources to elevate others. Reinstating the Renaissance focus on patronage, rather than on simply acquiring works of art, she will surely be celebrated in the history of collecting. 

Images of Valeria taken at her home by AJ Levy and Lewis Khan.