Page 10 - Luca Giordano - Liberation of St Peter

FOREWORD

t never ceases to amaze what changes the passage of just one year can wreak.As I write, half the countries of Europe

I have had their credit ratings downgraded, (one trembles to think how art dealer’s ratings might fare if placed under
similar scrutiny!). No one ventures a guess as to how the euro will weather this tsunami of economic data but so
far the doomsayers have proved correct.Yet despite all this the art market shows extreme resilience.

Our own microcosmic field of endeavour has also seen much change. Every dealer, whether in London, NewYork or
Paris, has complained about the dearth of prime material coming onto an art market that has become ever more
discriminatory in the standards of excellence demanded for both quality, conservation and historic importance.At the
same time the proliferating number of art fairs have posed the question at issue as to whether there is any future for
traditional old master art galleries as we once knew them. Our world is dominated by the two colossi in the field, the
auctioneers, ever battling, like Titans, for market share and extending their tentacles into new realms of activity.
Particularly perplexing is the auctioneer’s extension into the so called realm of ‘private treaty’ sales in direct conflict
to established dealers’ interests. In this they appear to emulate the banking sector with a ‘product’ for everyman. Can
they, one pauses to reflect, ever really offer the same standard of impartial advice that a traditional dealer once offered
to a long established client? It is no wonder that there is a spiralling trend in the number of ‘art advisers’ as opposed
to art dealers.

In our own sphere of gallery affairs we have again been subject to notable change.A long cherished chimæra or ideal
I had entertained with a view to providing a secure and on-going future for this gallery, could not be realised. It has
become necessary, after only a short interval of time, to change the Company name to Matthiesen Ltd. Our original
name was no longer available under Company Law and this change did no more than cause a reversion to the pre
1963 nomenclature as used by my father. In consequence I now find myself entering my seventieth year without a
clear stratagem for the future.

I have always been drawn to emulate Confucius who once said “To be able under all circumstances to practice five things
constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness”.Yet idealism may be
anAchilles heel.Tacitus, who was known for his penetrating psychology, observed‘Candour and generosity,unless tempered
by due moderation, leads to ruin.’ In life, and above all in the contemporary business world one struggles, often very
painfully, to achieve a balance. It is for this reason that I find a certain degree of solace at the present time in the notable
success of the charitable projects with which I am involved.

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