Special report: The secrets of great collectors

When was the last time you were in a museum? Some people can answer this question simply: “This morning, as soon as I woke up.” These are the collectors who, without hyperbole or caricature, can say that they have authentic museums in their private lives. They have collections that coexist with the conceptual phrases of the American artist Lawrence Weiner inscribed on their own walls, or they have paintings by Julião Sarmento above the fireplace, paintings by Paula Rego in the hallways, works by Joseph Kosuth next to the stereo, chromatic canvases or assemblages by Fernão Cruz in the attic, editions of Louise Bourgeois in the kitchen or oils by Barceló at the head of the dining table. In fact, art is (almost) “another child”. They talk about a “thirst”, a “passion”, “love at first sight”, an “addiction”, and they continue to acquire more and more works of art. They have wish lists to fulfill, despite the thousands of works they already store in air-conditioned warehouses. Their works are often loaned to exhibitions and museums, which also “validates” these collections. But sharing a private collection with the public is a generous gesture, let’s remember. The collections that these people have built up over decades are their “imaginary museums”, to use the title of André Malraux’s 1974 classic: places that reveal the thoughts of those who collected those works, the life path that led them there, the taste of those who bought them. And “taste” is the password to enter these six very different stories of collecting in Portugal. Even if taste does not mean the same thing to everyone. As Gertrude Stein might have written, every taste is a taste is a taste.

The founding couple of the Maria and Armando Cabral Collection – Rialto6 use irony when pointing to a photograph of the renowned Cindy Sherman that they have installed next to the elevator door of the house that serves as their headquarters and gallery. The close-up of her somewhat grotesque face is far removed from the cinematic stagings for which the artist sells for millions: “People say to us: 'Oh, how awful, how do you live with this?'” Apply the paint of reality: in the Lisbon building where the writer António Lobo Antunes lived (and where they framed two pieces of wall with his literary notes) there is eclecticism and risk in the omnipresent pieces, which include both a large-format photograph by the German artist Wolfgang Tillmans and the writings on the wall by Lawrence Weiner.