People who buy a nice apartment or a nice house decorate the property with “objets d’art”: paintings, sculptures and video installations. If the saying goes; “he who has money buys artworks” the converse also is true: “he who owns works of art can also purchase real estate”.
Art and Real Estate Complement Each Other
For example, Heinz Berggruen, a German Jewish journalist who fled to the United States from Germany and from there to Paris, France, collected works of Pablo Picasso when his career was still in its early stages, later sold part of his collection and amassed great wealth. He became one of the world’s largest art dealers. The family’s art collection is shown mostly in The Museum Berggruen in Berlin. His son Nicolas Berggruen is a real estate investor and builder of, among others, the residential tower “Meier on Rothschild”, 36 Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv. Berggruen’s son believes the tower will be a work of art in itself because of the special design of the architect Richard Meier.
Wealthy people buy works of art, people who collect art and become rich therefrom turn to investing in real estate.
The sculptress Ofra Zimbalista loved decorating buildings with large lifelike sculptures of people which she colored blue or purple. The people are climbing the walls or standing on a tall mast in a Lobby or at the entrance of a building – they create great interest among passersby. Zimbalista placed statues of three choral singers on the balcony of a boutique hotel at 96 Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv that attracts attention to the hotel and the people who traverse the Boulevard enjoy that work of art.
Creating art can beautify and enhance real estate properties. For example, Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” is shown at Ziv Towers at Ramat Hachayal (a Business District outside of Tel Aviv), the sculpture encourages the public to enter the shopping center and office buildings.
“Ne’eman Towers” is a complex of residential towers designed by Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. The buildings are painted in bright colors, attract attention from afar and are a refreshing sight in contrast to the environment which is not yet fully developed. The kinetic art on the buildings varies, depending on the location of the observer, when moving along the towers which “change” shape and color.
Michal Radzyner projected a video of people walking in rows on the walls of houses in Tel Aviv. The buildings were the background to her art and the city became the canvas on which it was presented.
When an item of art on display is unusual and unexpected – it creates an original, unique and interesting effect to the whole property: for example at a boutique hotel in Buenos Aires the designer Philippe Starck adorned the swimming pool with a fountain in the form of a gold crown – the hotel has since been upgraded. Even those who cannot afford to stay at the hotel come and visit it just to enjoy the ornamental art scattered throughout the public areas of the hotel.
Villa in Kfar Shmaryahu
Here we witness the various connections between art and real estate – art is presented inside a structure, on the walls of a house or apartment, or art is displayed on the exterior walls of a building, sometimes art is the structure itself. Art & Real Estate complement each other.