Finarte

Finarte auction house

Finarte was founded in 1959, on the initiative of the Milanese banker Gian Marco Manusardi, with the aim of assisting collectors and operators in the sector in the purchase and sale of works of art. Finarte is the first company in the world to operate loans in a field that had no credit with banking institutions. Since the early years of the historic Milanese headquarters in via Broletto, the strategy of the auction house has been clear: to focus on specialist auctions, from ancient to contemporary art, from silver to jewellery, from numismatics to porcelain and gradually to all sectors of collecting, at the same time trying to internationalize its market (even with joint ventures with operators in the sector). In a few years, Finarte became a leader in the art market sector in Italy: at the end of the 1960s, Finarte organized an average of 15 auctions per year, number doubled in the 1970s.

The company is growing at such a pace that people are starting to think about giving it a financial and commercial structure more suited to the evolution of the market. The number of events for each artistic sector grew and new offices were opened: in Rome in 1972 and in Milan in 1981. In 1986 the company's capital rose from 8 billion lire in 1982 to 42.5 billion. In 1989, Finarte reached its all-time high, with a turnover of around 150 billion lire. In 1993 it landed across the Channel, with the opening of a representative office in London.

A memorable date is March 11, 1997: the 1000th auction is held in Milan, in just 35 years of history.

Two years later, the website www.finarte.it was launched and an agreement was signed with the Class Editori Group for collaboration on the service based on the MF Trading platform (information and transaction system developed by Class Editori). In 2000, for the first time, a Finarte catalog was included in its entirety on the internet and from that year the Milanese auction house began an online sales activity in all sectors of collecting, from jewelery to paintings, from books to prints, from antiques to modern and contemporary art. On 10 April 2001, the President of Finarte Casimiro Porro was unanimously re-elected for the third time as President of the A.N.C.A., the National Association of Auction Houses.

Over the course of its decades-long history, Finarte has embraced all aspects of collecting, increasingly increasing its role as a leader in art investment and availing itself throughout its history of the collaboration of some of the greatest art historians, including Briganti , Testori, Zeri and Daverio.