From Spears':
Inside Liechtenstein's princely art collection, new tokens in its diplomacy
As Europe looks to Asia for new business, the tiny but wealthy state of Liechtenstein is loaning its treasure trove of art to China to demonstrate the principality’s speciality: long-term wealth preservation. But is it working? Alex Matchett reports
In a royal palace in central Vienna, Austria, a white-haired doctor is placing himself carefully on an electronic scale, bending forward, removing his tortoiseshell spectacles and placing his eye against a retina reader. There is a click and an enormous metal door swings slowly open. 'Now, please hurry as we have only twenty seconds before it closes again,' he says.
The doctor ushers an excited group of Chinese journalists swiftly through the thick metal jaws and into an unassuming underground storage facility, the kind in which canned food or car parts are often kept. Unassuming except that from the mesh shelves peer the faces of Renaissance Dutch merchants, Napoleonic generals and English duchesses, rendered exquisitely in oil on canvas: this room houses some of the finest examples of the Royal House of Liechtenstein's princely art collection, some of the best art on earth.
But the room, and the people in it, symbolise more than centuries of patient appreciation, patronage and purchase. The doctor is Johann Kräftner, the director of the Princely Collections, who is now being bombarded with questions from the Chinese journalists getting an insight into Liechtenstein afforded to few.
It is part of a press trip organised in conjunction with the loan of the Princely Collections' most notable masterpieces, chiefly one hundred Dutch oils, to state museums in Beijing and Shanghai. By providing a window on to the most respected masters of the European artistic tradition, the tiny principality is hoping to hold the gaze of Chinese investors as well as art aficionados.HT: Art Market Monitor
Couched in the Alps between Switzerland and Austria, the tiny country -- only 160 square kilometres and 37,000 people -- is ruled by a parliament of 25 members with the Prince of Liechtenstein as head of state. One of the oldest royal families in Europe, they have come to symbolise not only the country but also the management of wealth for which Liechtenstein is famous, putting billions of dollars of their fortune into their private bank, LGT, and remaining by far the largest investor.
‘It's a very visible symbol for the alignment of interest between the family, the bank and its clients,' says LGT's head of group marketing and communications Christof Buri. 'Nowadays in most banks you have anonymous shareholders, managers who come and go. There is a saying in Chinese, "Wealth doesn't surpass three generations." It's important for families in Asia to see that the Liechtenstein family has been around for eight centuries -- it's important to create, preserve and manage wealth for such a long time. The Princely Collections are testimony of that.'...MORE
From the Prince's collection:
Rubens’ portrait of his daughter, Clara Serena, which is among the Liechtenstein collection.Quentin Matsys
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