INTERVIEW

How did you first meet, and were you each already collecting separately before that point?
O+E: We met 10 years ago via a mutual friend in London at an art opening. At the time, Eugenio was already very involved in the art sector as a collector, and he had just launched ARTUNER platform as well. I was working in finance at the time but was surrounded by friends mostly working in the art sector, so I also started buying some artworks for myself and my family. 

How do you collect together? Do you need to agree and both love a piece, or are you happy to collect pieces even if both of you don’t completely love them?
O+E: It’s incredible that after 10 years of being together, our tastes in art are very similar, so most of the time we would agree on what we would like to buy for our personal collection or what we want to put on our walls. 

You are especially big collectors and patrons of young artists; why is this and which artist or artists do you especially love at the moment? 
O+E: The aim of Eugenio’s family foundation, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (FSRR), has always been to support and collect the “artists of our generation”. In the last 10 years it has been “our generation”, so we have been collecting, supporting, and growing together with artists like Michael Armitage, Avery Singer, David Czupryn, Sanya Kantarowski, and Pia Krajewski, to name a few. At the moment we are very excited about artists like Danielle McKinney and Mohammed Sami (whose show has just opened in the family museum in Turin FSRR) and Ambera Wellman (we showed her last year in FSRR), to again name just a few…

Who would be your dream artist to collect?
O: I would love to add to our collection some artists outside of “our generation”, for example I would add works by Soutine, Rothko, and some favourite Old Masters like El Greco.

What art spaces or fairs do you especially love?
O+E: We were in Madrid very recently, and I always love spending time in the Prado Museum. Many of my dream works are featured there, from Antonello da Messina and Piero della Francesca, to Bosch, Velasquez, Titian, El Greco, and all the incredible Goya works; it’s an incredible concentration of masterpieces. It’s also a good lesson on how to collect to create the best collections—you need to be close to the artists of your time (as the royal families in Spain often were).

What emerging art markets, globally, are you most excited about at the moment (i.e., South Korea, Africa, Latin America…)?
O+E: We have been excited for a while now about Asia, there is such a fascinating young energy and collector’s scene there. We were in Hong Kong in September for a collection exhibition at AIG space focused on artists born in the 1980s, and we had a great time there! We took the opportunity to also visit Seoul during Frieze, and Japan. We are currently in Asia for Basel HK and a little tour of cities in China (Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing), and we both sit on the International Council of K11 Art Foundation and are committed to supporting regional artists.

What would be your advice for young people who are just starting to collect? 
O+E: Be curious, open-minded, see a lot and educate yourself in art history. 
Ideally, find some people with more experience in the art-collecting journey and learn from them. Support emerging artists, these are the most rewarding purchases you can make.

Olga, how did the idea for ArtColLab come about?
O: My mother-in-law Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, who is the co-founder of the project and the Founder and President of FSRR, and I share the love of timeless fashion, and of course art. So a few years ago we came up with an idea to combine these interests for a good cause. The idea was to give artists whom FSRR has supported and worked with in the past a chance to collaborate with creatives from other industries and in the process raise funds to foster a new generation of young talent.


Eugenio, what is most important to you in preserving the legacy and vision of your mother, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, and your family’s foundation, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo?
E: I have been lucky to have my mother as such a fantastic mentor. She has been truly passionate at unconditionally supporting artists for more than three decades now. Alongside its exhibition programme, the Fondazione has a strong education focus, which is a testament to the desire to make contemporary art more accessible and loved by a wider audience. It’s always very important to keep in mind the mission that we have in supporting new generations of artists and giving them the best platform to develop their practices.


What are your future plans for your collection?
O+E: We are very excited to work on a family project in Venezia, on a little private island in front of Murano that will be a new exhibition venue for the collection in time for the 2026 Venice Biennale. And we are always excited to find new international museums to collaborate with in order to present the artists we collect and support, as with the Palazzo Strozzi show of last year.