“I have always wanted to share my works with the public, it makes me deeply happy”: businessman and great Art lover Juan Antonio Pérez Simón is exhibiting 70 masterpieces in Madrid until mid-January , where a museum will soon open to house part of its incredible collection.
AFP
Van Gogh, Picasso, Rubens, Goya, Monet, Renoir, Magritte or Rothko…: the collection of this discreet octogenarian, who was born in Spain but spent most of his life in Mexico, includes paintings from all the biggest names in painting.
This close friend of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim owns some 4,000 pieces in total (paintings, sculptures, drawings, manuscripts and decorative arts objects) — a collection which has never been exhibited in a dedicated museum, even if certain works have already been loaned all over the world.
“I was lucky enough to be able to bring together a large number of works, and I feel that I have a responsibility to share them with the public,” Juan Antonio Pérez Simon assures today in a written exchange with AFP .
At the Cibeles Palace, seat of Madrid City Hall, the exhibition “70 great masters from the Pérez Simón Collection”, visible until early 2025, is full of striking masterpieces, ranging from the 16th century to today today, from Greco to the American Alex Katz.
It precedes the expected opening of a place devoted entirely to the businessman’s collection, a stone’s throw from the city’s three other major artistic institutions: the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofia Museum and the Thyssen Museum. .
The details of the project are still under discussion, according to the municipality and the collector, but this museum, which could open in 2025, will house 200 works.
Air conditioning, security, transport…: Juan Antonio Pérez Simon will cover all costs, specifies the city, and this loan will last “a long time”, promises the 83-year-old millionaire.
“Not a luxury”
Son of farmers, this native of Asturias (northwest) whose family left Spain for Mexico when he was five years old made his fortune in telecommunications.
Having become a trader after studying economics, he then crossed paths with Carlos Slim, today one of the richest men in the world, with whom he joined forces. In 2020, in an interview with Paris Match, he compared the Mexican billionaire to his “best friend”, his “brother”.
Not very talkative about his affairs, Juan Antonio Pérez Simon is on the other hand inexhaustible when it comes to talking about his collection.
At the age of 23, in 1964, he returned to Europe for the first time with eight dollars in his pocket to live on each day: he spent them in particular to buy tickets to museums where he admired “the works of art that [l]had dazzled in [son] adolescence,” he tells AFP.
“Art is not a luxury,” assures Pérez Simón. “Art is accessible to everyone. When I didn’t have money, I bought reproductions. And when my economic situation improved, I started my collection.
“The pieces that I acquired depended on my finances,” he insists, while taking care to emphasize that he has always been moved “by beauty” and his “feelings” about the works.
Faithful, he assures that he has never resold a work that he had acquired. And even today, “they” live in all his houses and offices: “I live with them every day (…), bathrooms and kitchen included”.
For many years, at the foot and head of his bed hung “The Ascension of Christ” by Dalí and “Nude Reclining with a Book” by Tamara de Lempicka, two works exhibited at the Cibeles Palace.
“My quest for beauty is not over,” he says again, refusing to discuss his future acquisitions, which he simply hopes will “surprise the public.”
ATS
