Art: Egon Schiele, 1913
“Gustav Klimt in a Light Blue Smock.” UniCredit in Milan will sell most of its collection of works by Klimt, Giorgio de Chirico, Fernand Léger, Gerhard Richter, and others to fund good works.
When I worked at a Federal Reserve bank, I was astonished by the beauty of the bank’s art collection — and shocked that the public didn’t get to see it. A few works were in public hallways, but most were in private bank offices, in storage, or in the offices of wealthy tenant companies. I think the collection was a lure for some corporate tenants.
So I was intrigued to read what the Italian bank UniCredit had decided to do with its own valuable collection: sell off pieces to fund social initiatives across Europe.
As Anny Shaw wrote in May at the Art Newspaper, “The Italian bank UniCredit has announced plans to sell off its art collection — one of the largest corporate holdings in the world — to help finance social initiatives across Europe.
The impetus has come from the firm’s chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier, who publicly sold the bank’s private jet, opting to drive a Fiat 500 instead.
“Earlier today, the Milan-based bank announced a €1.4bn profit for the first quarter of 2019, up nearly 25% from the same period last year, and Mustier stated he intended to sell of non-core assets.
“The collection of 60,000 works includes those by Gustav Klimt, Giorgio de Chirico, Fernand Léger and Gerhard Richter. A spokeswoman says the bank has not yet decided exactly how many works will be sold, and when, but sales are expected to begin later this year. Pieces are currently displayed in the bank’s premises in Italy, Germany and Austria. …
“The decision to sell the collection comes after UniCredit extended its Social Impact Banking (SIB) initiative beyond Italy to countries including Germany, Austria, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Education, gender equality and job creation are among the bank’s goals, which last year approved €73m in financing to social entrepreneurs and startups in Italy.
“According to the spokeswoman, some of the art will also be donated to local museums ‘and the rest of the proceeds will be dedicated to other relevant projects, including the support of young artists locally.’ ” More here.
Federal Reserve folks would probably never be able to agree on doing something like that with their art collection, but I hold out hope that someday they will decide to make it available for viewing by the public. (Question for art critics: How about reporting on corporate collections, especially government ones that technically belong to the public?)
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I feel it is so tragic when fine art is locked away. I wish it would all be donated to museums so the whole world could have access.
And then the museums need to make sure everyone has access to them! At least some free hours.
When are they going to put the two of us in charge of the world? We have so many good ideas!
You have funnier ones.
60,000 works of art?! They could sell half and still have a ridiculous collection, plus pots of money to fund good causes!
This what leadership is. I love that the CEO decided to drive a Fiat and ditch the corporate jet.
Good ideas is right! I concur with the previous comments. And kudos to UniCredit. Wonderful portrait of Klimt.
Wasn’t that an amazing picture? I couldn’t find pictures from the UniCredit collection, so I thought, How about a picture of one of the artists? I struck gold.
You bet!