I still cannot believe Giovanni Sarte has suddenly passed away. No one expected it since there was hope for a recovery. He was supposed to participate also this year in the Florence Biennale. But due to his conditions, in August he had to give up. As a collaborator of my father Alfredo, Giovanni Sarti has always been present in my life. For me it was a pleasure to see them together. I learned a lot from that partnership. Giovanni was an avid worker and a tireless fighter. He travelled the world following a job that was also his greatest passion: art dealing. Giovanni was stateless. He could have lived anywhere, and he was the best at adapting to any situation that came his way.
A piece of our market history dies with him. Giovanni Sarti was what you would call a self-made man. He left the Marche region for northern Europe and did a thousand jobs, from waiter to croupier (in London). He told me several times that it was by being a croupier that he learned how to observe people in order to understand their souls.
It was in London in the late 1970s, in the halls of the casino where he worked, that he met some art dealers and through them the art market system, that he soon fell in love with. Giovanni Sarti was smart and shrewd. It didn’t take him long to understand the trade and set out on his own, opening a gallery in the City (it was 1977), and later in Paris (in 1996), becoming a distinguished point of reference for paintings of the high period, and those of the Italian Baroque. His discoveries and sales to major international museums are countless. He did very well, chapeau! [Among them: Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna; Cleveland Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (U.S.A.); Musée Fabre, Montpellier; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Musée du Louvre; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours; Louvre Abu Dhabi; Cassa di Risparmio di Rimini, ed.].
The main strength of Giovanni Sarti was his passion for art. He was constantly studying and researching, never missing an exhibition. He set an example of dedication to his work proving that with talent and consistency one can emerge in this field even with a modest education and without much capital at disposal. Sarti used to be proud of his origins rather than be ashamed of them. He knew he had made it, and he had good reasons to think so.
Thinking of him makes me smile. I still remember all the times he got angry, even about things that seemed of little importance to me. Then he would calm down easily. I remember him saying: ‘you young people don’t understand anything’… but then we laughed about it together.
In the past few years we got again, more for the pleasure of talking and seeing each other than for business reasons. He would always tell me about my father, and I, thanks to Giovanni, would happily go back in time with him.
We used to talk at least a couple of times a week, and when he came to London every day was a good day to visit Gabriele and Francesco at my gallery and have some coffee with them.
I will really miss our chats.
My very best to you, dear Giovanni.
29 October 2024
