– ROBAIRD O’CEARBHAILL
Hong Kong Correspondent
Italy shares with China top spot for UNESCO World Heritage Sites’ longest list at 55. In 2005 Macau’s historic center was chronologically the 35th site in China. Item (1), of the cultural criteria, for these locations to be listed, is “masterpiece(s) of human creative genius of cultural significance.” Apart from natural sites, long history, exceptional exchanges of culture, and outstanding human value are also cultural criteria.
But although these UNESCO cultural sites are highly valuable and prestigious, they do not at all paint the complete the picture, for Italy with its rich history, with the Roman Empire and the Catholicism centered there in Rome, has vastly more on offer. A unique treasure house in terms of art and craftsmanship, the country rules, by far, in volumes and quality of historical art, which is mostly religious.
“Italy, eighty percent of art in the world is concentrated here, mostly religious art,” Italian antiques expert and dealer, Marinella Veronesi, points out, in a phone interview from her shop in the historic city of Bologna. “We have so much art because of commissions from the popes and the Vatican. Some, much less, were from rich people like the Medicis (who used to be Europe’s main bankers), the richest family of the continent producing four popes and two queens of France and commissioned most of the art in then fabulously rich Florence.
A first meeting in Hong Kong, at the 2019 International Antiques Fair, led to interviews with O Clarim where Veronesi discussed her love of her work, family, and faith and her multiple visits to Macau where she has clients too.
You enjoy your work don’t you? It must be a great pleasure to be dealing with beautiful objects and art.
It’s the kind of work of work that you have to love. Very hard work but interesting to find the right pieces and to sell them. In Italy there are strict laws, a lot of regulation, penalties. (For example), anything from a church must show provenance, correct documents of ownership, which are verified at the Carabinieri (police) against the stolen property register. I also like to find the history of a piece – we (my husband and business I) only buy what we like. I enjoy researching to get an official certificate with a photo.
You sell silver mainly but also paintings. What kind of silver?
Solid silver but we find ivory too. Usually sterling silver is very particular, very sought after in the international market. Some are large delicate pieces. They make animals, tableware, decorative objects. They sell from 3,000 to 300,000 Euros ( MOP 30,000 – 3 million). Chalices are a market for collectors – usually sterling silver with 22 carat gold inside. Silver is antibacterial and can be used for water but not for wine. If you kill bacteria in the wine, it will change the taste of the wine. Rich people use silver tableware plates, knives, forks. A set of twelve will cost around 3,000 to 20,000 Euros. We also sell silver and ivory walking sticks
How did you begin in this business? Were you brought up with silver and art at home or did you learn later? You worked in London didn’t you?
We didn’t have silver at home, my parents were farmers. I went to London when I was eighteen to study English. I found a job in a silver shop and found my husband who was a silver and antiques dealer already. The shop was in Knightsbridge opposite (the famous luxury department store) Harrods. We bought at auctions private owners and at London antiques markets, Portobello and Bermondsey. We had to know the manufacturers and how the silver pieces were made. Silver is precious, although second in (metal) value to gold; the value is in how it is made. For me the art of making silver is more interesting than painting.
At the Hong Kong fair you had some Macanese clients and went to Macau to see some of those clients too. Do they have different tastes from mainland Chinese clients? And how is Macau for you?
Chinese care about brand names and don’t care about quality. They want to guarantee their price. Macanese know the history of pieces. They like decorative tableware, chandeliers, fruit bowls, candlesticks. I enjoy Macau because it is like a European city: good, old churches. Don’t like the modern (fake classic style) casinos. I have been there many times but only for one day each time.
How important is Catholicism in your life?
If I can I will help somebody. There’s an old couple by themselves this summer. They just called me and I go round to help them. I have a great uncle, a priest, living in the Vatican who teaches Latin and Greek, who taught me to behave properly to help people. He is four to five years to being 100 years old. The Church is a very important institution. You’ve got to follow the rules.
How do you manage family life and a busy work life? How do you feel as a mother and wife?
Very hard to keep the balance with kids you want to control but not too much. They need freedom to go their own way. I am patient and settle the family in discussions. I work with my husband, so we bring work problems home, so we fight sometimes but it’s gone in ten minutes. I’m very balanced. My daughter grew up in the countryside with mother and great grandmother – same rules as me. Now she is a manager with a multinational company in London. Everyone in my family gets to ninety or 100 year lives. Healthy lives. Better fruit, vegetables, rabbits, all organic, natural. I go there every weekend to keep the family tradition when everyone gets together at weekends. Now many families are not families. Divorced. Disorientated. When we left school we used to go to church to do homework. We stayed together.
What do you feel about Italy nowadays?
We are an open museum. Walk in the street you always see something you like. People don’t realise what they have, even nature. We have a mine of gold (for tourism). We are not doing enough. Don’t care enough. Monuments are not restored. They say they don’t have money. But now it’s better than before when they knocked down the old buildings to put up new ones. They don’t do that now.
Tell me about Bologna.
It’s a rich city, there is a lot of money here from manufacturing. Ferrari is based here so is Lamborghini. It is strategic: Bologna is the third city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. And it has the oldest university in the world.
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