Laurence des Cars - 232 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
A LARGE MUSEUM IS LIKE AN OPERA. Laurence des Cars is a French museum curator and art historian who President Macron appointed President and Director of the Louvre Museum in September 2021, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the establishment’s 228-year history. Her previous role was President of musée d’Orsay and musée de l’Orangerie. Laurence des Cars is the author of several books including ‘The Pre-Raphaelites: Romance and Realism’. “The Louvre is more than a museum. It’s a symbol of France, of Paris.” “We are definitely in a very complex moment, and...
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Graydon Carter - 231 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
GOOD GOING. Graydon Carter launched his enjoyable digital weekly newsletter Air Mail in 2019. He was the editor of Vanity Fair for twenty-five years, and under him Vanity Fair won numerous awards. Named to the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame, he is also an author and editor of books, a producer of plays and documentaries, and a restaurateur. In the newly published memoir When the Going Was Good Graydon recounts how he made his mark as one of society’s most talented editors and shapers of culture. “I’m a very kind person,...
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Guillaume Bonn - 230 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
AFRICA: FACING THE FACTS. Guillaume Bonn is a documentary photographer who has commented on conflict, social and environmental issues for the last 25 years. As a contributor to the New York Times and Vanity Fair he covered topics ranging from the conflict in Northern Uganda, the Darfur humanitarian crisis and the ivory trade in African elephants. Bonn grew up in Kenya and his subsequent reporting bought him to 40 countries on the African continent. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he is the author of a beautiful new book Paradise Inc.. “African...
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David Veal - 229 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
EDUCATING THE CONSUMER ABOUT COFFEE AND TEA. DAVID VEAL has been deeply involved in both the coffee industry and the tea industry for over 40 years. He is the former Executive Director of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe and is currently Executive Director of The European Speciality Tea Association, a position he took up in May 2019. “There is a commonality between tea and coffee, and that is education.” “We’re all about promoting speciality tea and fostering a speciality tea community worldwide.” “The path that speciality tea is taking is similar to the one that...
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Thomas Heatherwick - 228 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
HUMANISE: A DEEPLY PASSIONATE MANIFESTO. Thomas Heatherwick is a British designer whose varied work over two decades is characterised by its originality, inventiveness and humanity. As the founder and design director of Heatherwick Studio, Thomas now heads a team of over 250 problem solvers dedicated to making the physical world around us better for everyone. This team wants to see a world where the buildings and places around us are radically more joyful, engaging and human. The approach driving everything is to lead from human experience rather than any fixed design belief. "I advocate...
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Cécile Verdier - 227 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
ART ELEVATES YOU EVERY DAY. Cécile Verdier is President of Christie's France. She graduated from Sciences Po and Art History at Paris IV, before spending 4 years at Christie's as Head of Valuations then moving to the 20th Century department, in parallel of taking the hammer for Christie’s France since the inauguration sale in 2001. From 2008 to 2018, she was heading the 20th Century Design Department globally at Sotheby’s and Vice President of the French office at the end of her tenure. In 2019, she came back to Christie’s as President for France. “An auction house is rightly called a...
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Professor Sheng Lim - 226 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
RESTORING AND MAINTAINING EYESIGHT. Professor Sheng Lim is an internationally renowned ophthalmologist and consultant at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. He was trained in the UK and also spent one year as the International Glaucoma Association’s postdoctoral fellow at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. He was promoted to Professor of Ophthalmology (Glaucoma Studies) at King’s College London in 2020, in recognition of his contribution towards ophthalmology research. He is currently the head of ophthalmology research at St Thomas’, and founder of their KCL Frost Eye Research...
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Idarica Gazzoni Frascara - 225 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
BEAUTIFULLY TRANSFORMING WALLS AND ROOMS. Idarica Gazzoni Frascara’s hometown is Bologna, Italy. After she studied with Van Der Kelen in his painting school in Brussels, Belgium, and learned the technique of faux bois and marbleizing she became a passionate artist, painting rooms and walls and ceilings in Italy and many other countries. In 2009 she founded Arjumand’s World and opened her first showroom for fabrics and wallpapers in Milano. “I fell in love with Arjumand because she was quite extraordinary and had all the details I was looking for.” “All the rules have changed.”...
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Jonathan Reekie - 224 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
A CROSS DISCIPLINARY WORLD FOR YOUNG ARTISTS. Jonathan Reekie has been Director of Somerset House Trust in London since 2014. During this time, the renovation of the historic site with its grand Renaissance architecture has been completed, including the launch of Somerset House Studios for artist residencies. Reekie has established Somerset House as a home of cultural innovators and in 2025 Somerset House celebrates its 25th birthday, marking its extraordinary transformation to one of London’s best loved cultural spaces and home to one of the largest creative communities in the UK....
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Alastair Buchan - 223 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
WORKING WITH THE BRAIN. Alastair Buchan is a British-Canadian doctor who specialises as a clinical neurologist. His main research interest is how to make neuroprotection a reality in the clinic. He currently holds the Chair of Stroke Research at the University of Oxford. From 2008 until 2017, he served as the Dean of Medicine and the Head of the Medical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford, and then from 2017 on as the university’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of Brexit Strategy. Working to maintain Oxford’s continued presence in Europe he brokered partnerships with the...
info_outlineCREATING A CULTURAL HUB. Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu are the co-founders of Magazzino Italian Art, a museum and research center dedicated to postwar and contemporary Italian art that is located in Cold Spring, New York. Magazzino opened in 2017 at the former manufacturing site of Cyberchron rugged military computer systems. The name Magazzino translates as "warehouse".
“Magazzino made the step that has made Arte Povera better known today.”
“Magazzino will never stop displaying the 13 heroes that we have in the group of Arte Povera, so the original ‘main building’ will always remain a museum dedicated to Arte Povera.”
“The donkeys in Sardinia were on the verge of extinction and were under very strict protection with laws that would not allow their export outside Sardinia.”