It is worrying that the prices are so high

When we started to buy contemporary art in the 1980s, people looked at us like a crazy. "Giuliana Setari is an Italian born in a large house from the edge of the Adriatic who now lives near the river Seine in Paris. The wife of business banker, who visited Rome and New York, exudes generosity. She shared the table with the artists. It shares its works of art, which she gladly ready around the world and she shares his love of the Parisian art scene by funding the arrival of young artists in Paris through the foundation she created, the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art

She doesn't like enter of large explanations on its tastes expressed very soon for all of these artists who commonly use the concept. "Me I'm not critical of art." I don't like too much looking why. It is a question of emotion. "This is the beauty in pure, pure joy," she said, evoking his first purchase, an abstract canvas coloured in shades of red and yellow of Gerhard Richter in a perfect French. If today the German painter, who took top honors in major museums for contemporary art in the world, is regarded as a signature key, at the time, in the 1980s, the wager was risky.

To attempt to justify its commitment, it dates back to the sources: his childhood in an idyllic spot. "My parents were not collectors, but, how to say". We live in the beauty. At home, you saw the sea and the Hill. "Living often away from his country, she found the art as a means of reconciliation through among other activists of the movement of Arte povera, or even for example by purchasing a photo of large format representing the villa Malaparte in Capri by Gunther created in 1989, today throne in his living room. "When we lived in the United States, we decided to collect the European art." For example, we have not bought Basquiat painting at the time. It was a way to give a direction to our choice, to assert our sensitivity.

She experienced as very early Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, through its Milan Massimo de Carlo Gallery. "My husband immediately loved the game of Cattelan", she said about that which is now one of the stars of the art market. The couple is then the acquisition of a piece in three dimensions representing a beggar sitting on a bench in actual size. "The simple idea to think about bringing a beggar in this world, it was the expression of an interesting sensitivity", she explains. In the hallway of the apartment of Giuliana Setari, there is another famous piece signed of the troublemaker of the Italian contemporary art. Named "The tourists", it is a work on the derision of art. It is composed of a series of stuffed pigeons in height. Of droppings has been painted in Sham on the white wall as to make those commonly called "flying rats" more real. "I hate pigeons, but this facility is powerful," she says.

One of the artists the best represented in Giuliana Setari is Angelo Pistoletto. The famous Italian, from the Arte povera and was Lion d'Or at the Venice Biennale in 2003, marked the minds by the use of mirrors in his works. Precisely when it enters the apartment Setari, is to one of these mirrors polished steel in which is embedded the frit of a man of dos image. "We purchased it in 1981." It is the guardian of the House. He follows us everywhere. More generally, the idea of the mirror is consistent with the contemporary spirit: an image of the moment. The viewer enters the work of transient way. "Pistoletto has also made a huge composition for the House of Giuliana Setari: a mirror that mirrors the contours of the Mediterranean. "Pistoletto is a force of nature." He believes in the power of art which penetrates the society. It feels on an ethical mission. In 1994, he even wrote a manifesto on this subject, then it has created a foundation between Turin and Milan, rod. "For me, it is a great honour to participate in this project," said the President of the Foundation Pistoletto.

However, his relationship with the artists is measured. "Respect and distance." Can be a very good relationship with the artists without being in their daily lives. Be linked without being completely in their world. "She speaks with affection of the prominent Austrian artist Franz West:"He likes that the life and art mix", or, in the same way, of the young French artist Fabien Verschaere, who received the award of the Dena Foundation in 2001. "I couldn't live without meeting new artists". We have projects together financing of stays in the United States, the publication, scholarship support... These are real links, without strategy.

Remains that today ' today, the art is dominated by the market with values that represent financial masses more increasingly important. "From the beginning of the 1980s, we have choices." We decided to purchase tables rather than real estate. But today everything has changed. The art market is global and there is an international system of recognition. It is worrying that the prices are so high. "Auctions have accelerated this system", note the patron of the arts collector. And conclude with a bit of nostalgia: "our generation is that of dinosaurs." We are endangered. We must adapt, watch this scene more complex and these works more in more expensive.