Top art collector displays rare treasures in Madrid

MADRID

After visiting Europe 60 years ago as a penniless art aficionado, Juan Antonio Perez Simon overcame hardship to amass a remarkable collection, which is on display for the first time in Madrid.

"I have always wanted to share my works with the public," the Spanish-born millionaire businessman, 83, told AFP in a written exchange. "It makes me profoundly happy."

Perez Simon's lifelong passion for art has led to a collection boasting 4,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures and decorative objects.

The new exhibition at Madrid's grandiose Cibeles Palace — "70 great masters of the Perez Simon collection" — runs to mid-January and is crammed with art treasures, ranging from the 16th century to today.

They include works by masters like Van Gogh, Sisley, Picasso, Rubens, Goya, Monet, Renoir, Magritte and Rothko.

Perez Simon, who has spent most of his life in Mexico where he now lives, has never previously lent his collection to a museum in this way, even if some items have been loaned around the world.

After this show, a new site dedicated to 200 pieces of his collection is due to open in Madrid. It will be an addition to the Spanish capital's established art institutions — the Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen museums — to which millions of visitors flock every year.

Perez Simon said the loan would be long-term, although details are still being finalised.

Madrid city hall has said he has already agreed to take care of securing, storing and transporting the works.

Born in a rural family in Spain's northwestern Asturias region, Perez Simon moved to Mexico at the age of five before making a fortune in telecommunications.

He then became a trader and crossed paths with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, one of the world's richest men, describing him as his "best friend" and "brother" in a 2020 interview with Paris Match magazine.

When he returned to Europe in 1964 as a 23-year-old, his daily budget of $8 went towards museum tickets to admire the artworks that had "dazzled" him as a teenager, he told AFP. "When I had no money, I would buy reproductions in museums. When my economic situation improved, I started my collection."

But money was never the motivation, he added, highlighting the "beauty" of the art and the feelings it inspired in him.

Such is his voracious appetite for art, he said, he has never resold any of the works painstakingly gathered over decades.

Perez Simon said his "quest for beauty has not finished yet" but he remained coy on the next gems to enter his possession, hoping they would "surprise the public" in future exhibitions.