French art the American way
The American collector Rodica Seward, owner of Tajan, France’s best-known private auction house, has a missionary passion for modern French art. She talks to Louise Nicholson.
Louise Nicholson, Monday, 25th August 2008
Indeed, Mrs Seward appears to love the whole life she has made for herself by simultaneously climbing the cultural and financial ladders. Arriving in America from Romania aged 17, she took degrees in architecture and urban design at Columbia (‘then I worked with Philip Johnson and others in the heyday of urban planning’), returned to her alma mater to take an MBA and was immediately recruited by Morgan Stanley. ‘I did 20 years of professional banking. My hobby, my passion, was art and design. Saturday was galleries day, this was my thing.’
It was in New York that she started collecting, not modern French but old Chinese pieces. ‘I bought a low Ming table with fantastic inlay in a little antiques store downtown, paid $200 or $300, some fantastic price. I was just married. The table was the tipping point. I still have it in my New York apartment.’ She also started to collect Chinese lacquer cinnabar boxes. ‘I love all Chinese porcelain and lacquer. I started with single colours – celadon, sang de boeuf. I still have them all in my apartments in New York and Paris. And look, my office is full of these two colours.’ Her interest continues ‘aggressively’, as she puts it. ‘I love the relationship between monochrome early Chinese ceramics of the 15th to 17th centuries and French ceramics of the first half of the 20th century, and the 50s.’
It was when she was doing business that the idea emerged for using those skills to work with art. ‘Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, bought Phillips and Tajan. It was a disaster for him. He got rid of Phillips because it was losing lots of money. But Tajan was a brand name in France and he was French. I was working with LVMH for business in the summer of 2003, and they offered me Tajan for sale. I thought they were crazy.’ By December, encouraged by her children, the deal was done.
The initial idea was to restrict herself to the business side but she soon realised that ‘things wouldn’t get done’ – that is, radically changed to her idea of the way forward. ‘In the fall of 2004 I realised for the first time in my life that I have something of my own, and I love the product and have a passion for it. I didn’t buy this house as a good business proposition – there were far more interesting ones.’ Tajan was known for its decorative and old masters sales; she added areas where she had personal knowledge and expertise, ‘design, modern and contemporary, so I could develop these aggressively. I realised – and this is very important – that I have no interest in being a specialist. This is a business with very low margins. You have to have a balance. There is contemporary, there is old masters, there are books, Asian arts, and so on. We can ride the fashions of taste.’
LATEST NEWS & COMMMENT
Manhattan transfer
The Lower East Side, once home to immigrants and aspiring artists, is no receiving the uptown treatment.
Shakespeare in stone
The National Trust's plans to acquire Seaton Delaval Hall are a tribute to a genius who has inspired writers and artists for centuries.
In pursuit of collectors
The Fitzwilliam Museum is celebrating the centenary of the directorship of Sydney Carlyle Cockerell with an exhibition that makes clear that he was in many ways the first modern museum director.
Comments
Post a comment