Banca Ifis: “Investing in beauty is convenient: so art generates value”

What if beauty were the solution? If, in addition to taking care of the soul and feeding the gaze, could the economy move and make it grow?

The data confirm this: art and culture, neglected treasures of our history, are able to propagate their effects in unexpected and fruitful areas. Investing in beauty is an excellent deal, socially virtuous and economically advantageous.

This is what emerged during the meeting organized by Vanity Fair And IFIS bank in the frame of the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milanon the occasion of the inauguration of the exhibition “Beauty and ideal”in which 12 chalk busts of Antonio Canova Recovered and restored by Banca IFIS, together with the Vestal and a series of small enamel reproductions of the paintings of the collection of Giovanni Battista Sommariva. “In this complicated era beauty knows how to unite people, it is a good that must be safeguarded and understood,” he said Simone Marchetti, Vanity Fair European Editorial Director & Vanity Fair Italia Editor-in-Chief, introducing the talk that led to the stage, to dialogue, Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassiopresident of Banca Ifis, Angelo Crespigeneral manager of the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Braidense National Library, Sara RicciardiFounder & Creative Director of the homonymous multidisciplinary design studio, e Franco Loro PianaCEO and founder of Sease. “There is a need for beauty to see that a better world is possible,” added Simone Marchetti. In a tradition that dates back to ancient Egypt and passes through the Roman Empire, it crosses the Renaissance and reaches up to today, the relationship between art and economy has distant roots. And today this dialogue is more vital and necessary. Fürstenberg underlined the importance of creating beauty even in the work of a bank that transforms financial deadlines, “to make sense of what we do”.

Fifth “Economy of beauty” reportdrawn up annually by the Office of Banca Ifis, reveals how the investment in art and culture brings multiple benefits within the company, but also in the community in which it operates. Art changes the way of seeing the world, stimulates creative thinking, generates innovative virtuous mechanisms, gives new tools to solve complex problems. Beauty is in all respects a productive factor, whose benefits are also demonstrated by the numbers: the impact on GDP, attributable to it, reached 29.2% in 2023 in a growing path over the years. Fürstenberg, who wanted the creation, within Banca Ifis, of Ifis Art that collects all the initiatives for the enhancement of art, is convinced that “for a bank the investment in beauty, regardless of the cost, has a return to the value of its history and on the brand that is far superior to the money spent”. The exhibition of the Busts of Canova, the result of the collaboration between Banca Ifis and Pinacoteca di Brera, is thanks to the “dialogue between state and private individuals, today easier than in the past”, said Crespi. “The idea of ​​the exhibition is to pay homage to neoclassicism, the style under whose aegis founded Brera, preconated by the great Milanese Enlightenment and created by that handful of extraordinary artists who fed the walls: Andrea Appiani, Giuseppe Bossi, Antonio Canova”, continued Crespi. With his gaze as a designer, Ricciardi observes that “the city, materials and space shape our way of living and knowing”. All of us – he says – “We are modeled by objects in a synaesthetic relationship.” In a globalized and saturated sector, their plain wonders about the search for a “unique and beautiful” creation, in the awareness that “the starting point of luxury operators is to do something extraordinary”, in order to create art also in fashion. For the CEO of Sease “contamination is vital in the creative process”. Ricciardi warns by the inevitable fear of making mistakes of the artist who confronts the endless Italian artistic treasure. “We have Michelangelo, Leonardo, it is a powerful and forcing heritage.” For this reason “it is essential to give yourself the time to understand”. “Beauty – says Marchetti – is a living body that feeds on investments and money” but, adds Crespi, “is an ethical value, even before aesthetic”. And among the busts of Canova, “it is not us who looks at beauty but it is she who looks at us, activates and changes us”, concludes Simone Marchetti.

From the left, Franco Loro Piana, CEO and founder of Sease; Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, president of Banca Ifis; Sara Ricciardi, Founder & Creative Director of the homonymous multidisciplinary design studio; Angelo Crespi, general manager of the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Braidense National Library and Simone Marchetti, Vanity Fair European Editorial Director & Vanity Fair Italy Editor-in-Chief.

Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio President of Banca Ifis during the talk with Simone Marchetti Vanity Fair European Editorial ...

Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, president of Banca Ifis, during the talk with Simone Marchetti, Vanity Fair European Editorial Director & Vanity Fair Italy Editor-in-Chief.

Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio President of Banca Ifis with Angelo Crespi General Manager of the Pinacoteca di Brera and ...

Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, president of Banca Ifis, with Angelo Crespi, general manager of the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Braidense National Library.

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Founder and President of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation.

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, founder and president of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation.

Source: Vanity Fair

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