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Count Giberto - Growing Up In The Aman Venice
617 Plays2 years ago
A few years back, I was on a gondola ride in Venice and our gondolier pointed out the top floor of the Aman Venice – Papadopoli Palazzo. He looked at us and said, “Do you see the lights on the top floor? The owner of that building turned it into an Aman hotel and kept the top floors as his home. And he’s a Count.” Now, I get super intrigued by this stuff so of course I did extensive research and found out that while he currently lives at the top floor with this family, that he also grew up in that home. Giberto comes from an aristocratic upbringing which to me, meant that there had to be some sort of collections that have been kept in the family. Well, I sure was correct. Count Giberto has some amazing original oil paintings of his ancestors, an incredible book collection with family ties, antiques, you name it. Not only that, but he has an amazing collection of Murano glass, a lot of which he has designed himself. However, growing up around these items, I was curious to find out whether Giberto thought of himself as a collector. Please enjoy, Count Giberto for Collectors Gene Radio.
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Transcript
Introduction to Incunaboli & Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
I collect books which are called Incunaboli, which are, since, you know, Gutenberg in 1457, I guess, or 70, he invented the press. From 1470 to 1500, it's called Incunaboli. Then you call them Cinco Centine, and then they become books. So that period is the period where you do the Incunaboli, which are very rare to find.
00:00:28
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? And welcome to Collectors Gene Radio. I'm your host, Cameron Steiner, and I'm joined by my co-host and brother, Ryan. This is all about diving into the nuances of collecting and ultimately finding out whether or not our guests have what we like to call the Collectors Gene. That's right. And as always, please subscribe and leave a review for us. It truly helps. We hope you enjoy the pod. Let's go.
Venice Experience & Count Giberto's Collections
00:01:01
Speaker
So a few years back it was our first time in Venice and of course I had to do a gondola ride whether it's cliche or not and our gondolier pointed out the top floor of the Amman Venice Papadopoli Palazzo.
00:01:17
Speaker
He looked at us and said, or rather asked us if we could see the lights on the top floor, and then he followed up with telling us that the owner of that building turned it into an Amman hotel, but decided to keep the top floors for his home and his family. And he's a count. Now, I get super intrigued by this stuff, so of course I did extensive research and found out that while he currently lives at the top floor with his family, he also grew up in that home.
00:01:45
Speaker
Count Giberto comes from an aristocratic upbringing, which to me meant that there had to be some sort of collections that have been kept in the family. And I was absolutely correct. Count Giberto has some amazing original oil paintings of his ancestors, an incredible book collection that's currently growing with family ties, antiques, you name it. Not only that, but he has an amazing collection of Murano glass, a lot of which he's actually designed himself.
00:02:12
Speaker
However, growing up around these items, I was really curious to find out whether Giberto thought of himself as a collector.
00:02:19
Speaker
He is a charmer in every sense of the word and he actually even invited Ryan and I back to Venice for some coffee and collection diving. And you can believe it, we are 150% going.
Interview with Count Giberto
00:02:31
Speaker
This chat was such an honor and a pleasure and I will definitely give you all the scoop after we visit him in Venice. But for now, I suggest a cocktail or cappuccino because this episode takes you right to Amman Venice where it all began.
00:02:46
Speaker
Please enjoy. This is Count Giberto for Collectors Gene Radio. Giberto, thank you so much for joining us today on Collectors Gene Radio. It's an honor to have you. No, it's a pleasure for me.
00:02:59
Speaker
You know it's been a couple years now since I was in Italy, Venice specifically and the reason that you popped into my head when I decided to start making this podcast was we were on a gondola ride, now fiancé and I, and
00:03:18
Speaker
They had mentioned, they had pointed out the Amman Resort Hotel and said, you see those lights at the very top of the hotel there? And I said, yeah, sure, I see them. And they said, somebody lives up there.
00:03:34
Speaker
And I just was enamored by the whole history of not only the building itself but learning about you and your family. And so I think a good place for us to start is to – I'd love to get some background on yourself and your family.
00:03:54
Speaker
Okay, no problem. Well, the palazzo you saw has been turned in a man seven years ago, more or less. I was born here, I was actually born in Rome because the doctor was in Rome, but after two weeks I was here. And we used to live the second floor, the second noble floor that you maybe saw with your born dollar passing by, which was very beautiful. And then as all the Venetian had the same problem that maintained this huge palazzo was very, very expensive.
00:04:24
Speaker
So we started renting, renting, renting. And at the end, we end up at the top. And so I had to rent all the rest. And I was very lucky to do this deal with Amman Resorts, which are the best hotels, I guess, in the world. I mean, my preferred ones. And we made the works for three years. And then finally, we opened this hotel, which is considered one of the nicest hotel, most beautiful. I mean, it's the only hotel where you find inside the ballroom, done in the
00:04:54
Speaker
The whole palazzo was built in the 16th century. It was finished in 1558, something like that. And then my great-grandfather, who was called Papadopo, which was a Greek family, very, very rich.
00:05:09
Speaker
They had a bank in Venice. They arrived in Venice from Greece at the end of the 17th century, beginning of the 18th century. And they became very rich and they had three palaces in Venice. And when this guy got married, this great-grandfather of mine, maybe more than great-grandfather, it's two or three steps beyond, married with the last elder, Bernini, who was a family from Florence, who had a Pope who was Clement de Cetimo.
00:05:39
Speaker
As a present, he gave to her this palazzo. And at the moment, he bought a palazzo who was next to ours, and he pulled down the palazzo to make two gardens and another wing. So when you were passing by with the gondola, you saw the palazzo and the garden, which is in Venice very, very rare to have a big garden on the Grand Canal. To have two is unique.
00:06:02
Speaker
It's like having a garden in New York. It's like having, yeah, exactly, two gardens in New York. And so when I was very little, I was living here and it was still very, very beautiful. And then we moved to Rome because my father died when I was very young.
00:06:21
Speaker
He was very old. I was the only boy of the family, and we started renting the palazzo. When I got married, I came back. I took the last floor, and I started thinking, what could we do with this huge house? Because it's 7,000 square meters, so it's really big, very big.
00:06:38
Speaker
And it's very expensive to keep, obviously, because everything falls down. When it's very humid, it's very difficult to keep buildings in a good shape. And so we did this deal, finally, and now we live happily on the top of the man, which is fantastic, because I go down for drinks, whatever you wish. We have a wonderful restaurant, we have the garden where I go down and read my book, and all these kinds of things.
00:07:05
Speaker
Sure. I mean, every Amman resort and hotel is absolutely stunning and the level of detail and taste and the finishes are really second to none. But I find that your property in specific and your house is unlike the others because there's an Amman resort in the middle of the desert in, I think it's Utah.
00:07:31
Speaker
and absolutely beautiful, but it's different. This is the old palazzo who has been turned to a man. You have to think that in this house at the second floor, which has remained 18th century, because the rest of the palazzo was redone at 1840 by my great-grandfather,
00:07:53
Speaker
And the second noble flaw is remained how it was in the 18th century. And it has all the frescoes of Tiepolo, of Guarana. It has the only alcove, interiorly painted and made in stucco by Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. And that was my mother's room when I was a child. I still remember when she was sleeping there. And I mean, you can come here and sleep in a Tiepolo room. I think it's the only hotel in the world that I know, at least.
00:08:23
Speaker
Incredible.
Murano Glass Passion
00:08:24
Speaker
So growing up in Palazzo Papadopoli, you were really exposed to a whole different side of the world and I guess the level of detail and even the things, right? The items that were maybe even on a coffee table, right? These are not normal things that the general population grows up around. Q, touch a little bit on
00:08:51
Speaker
what you grew up around and the collections that maybe your family had of certain things, whether it was art or antiques or, you know, even glass, if that's where the inspiration for your glass came from. Yeah, it did, absolutely. Yeah, I was very lucky. I'm still very lucky. I feel very lucky. But you have to understand that in Venice, it was quite the same in all the parathles.
00:09:16
Speaker
So it's not just a unique palazzo because every palazzo has his story and every family had this, we call them, you call them collection. I call them interior decorator of the house. I mean, you know, they've always been there. I mean, I always saw them. So for me, they were normal. And then lots of them were sold by my mother, so I don't see them anymore.
00:09:43
Speaker
Hopefully to a good home. The home resisted. I mean, the big thing, they all went, but I mean, we're very lucky nevertheless. And yes, the glass, I saw the old glass, it's there where I started to think to redo the glasses as they were before with an old style.
00:10:05
Speaker
And then, you know, all my friends used to call me saying, uh, I have free glasses who are broke. Can you make them again? And so I started going to Murano. And so I decided to design some glass and that's how it started actually to do old things. I mean, new things, more modern possibly, but with the old, um, touch over the old style. Sure. So you really turned a passion of yours into a business. It sounds like.
00:10:36
Speaker
Well, business is a big word. We don't make money with it because it's very difficult to make money. I've always been very good in spending money more than in doing money. I think you and I probably have a lot in common then. Yeah, absolutely. It's much better, you know, how to spend it. It's a very big tool. Yeah, we don't make money with glass, but we have lots of fun, no, Julia? Yes.
00:11:03
Speaker
And Julia, we could get a little guest appearance here. She really helped put this whole episode all together and she's been working for you for some time now. How did you guys get together? She's the daughter of a friend of mine.
00:11:18
Speaker
that I know since ever. I mean, we were maybe in the same school when we were young, but he's more younger than I am. That's why I didn't see him. But Julia started working with my wife, and then she moved to the glass, and now she's the boss of the glass by far. She decides almost everything. I try to decide something, but she has the last word. And then you just have to pay for it.
00:11:44
Speaker
We all do, but it's not a question of pain. We don't lose money this year, and we don't make money, which is already a good thing, no? Having fun.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's what it's all about. I mean, at some point when you're doing something you love, you stop looking at the costs of things and you start looking at the joy that you get from it. You're right. And you know what? The point of making money with Murano and making the things you like, it's complicated.
00:12:14
Speaker
For a very simple reason, which is very stupid to say this, but it's quite obvious for me, not for you, because you don't know the glass in Murano, how it works. But if you come to me and you buy six glasses, most of the time I have to order some glasses, which I do, and they never make you six glasses. They make you 36 glasses every time. Otherwise they don't do them. So you have a huge
00:12:41
Speaker
How do you say, stock? That's why you want to make money, because you can't make money, but you have a big stock. I could give all my glasses to my five daughters, four daughters, and a boy when they get married. At least that. Are you doing the Murano Glass full-time? I don't want to call it a business anymore. No. I actually work for an American company who is called Aeon.
00:13:06
Speaker
Oh, sure. Yeah, you know, Ian. I work for Ian, and that's my hobby, the glass. Very nice. And so, as a maker of Murano glass, are you also looking in antique shops for glass pieces that inspire you? I mean, do you collect glass to also inspire you to make glass? No, I don't collect glass. I collect other
Collecting Historical Books & Family Ties
00:13:31
Speaker
things, but not glass. What else are you collecting?
00:13:34
Speaker
Well, I collect incunaboli and books, old books, because I actually have here in the house the archive of the family. Wow. And there is a, which is the thing I like more, I study all the time. And when I find some documents that I don't have with the name of the family, of one of the family who ended in my family, I try to buy them.
00:14:04
Speaker
And there was a part of my family that in the 16th century they were in Venice. And there were the first ones to do books, you know, to print books. There were printers.
00:14:22
Speaker
And so I collect books which are called Incunaboli, which are since Gutenberg in 1457, I guess, or 70, he invented the press.
00:14:35
Speaker
From 1470 to 1500, it's called Incunaboli. Then you call them Cinco Centine, and then they become books. So that period is the period where you do the Incunaboli, which are very rare to find. And actually, in your questions, I saw there is one, what is the thing you lost and you couldn't buy that you really want to buy for your collection? And it's a book.
00:15:04
Speaker
It's a book which is, it's called Al Corano di Macometo, done by Cornelius Rivabene. And it was done in 4070, maybe 4080. And it's the first translation in vulgar language of the Corano under the Inquisition.
00:15:26
Speaker
And so this ancestor of mine was condemned to be killed because the church didn't allow you to do these kinds of things. But fortunately, they didn't get him, he died before. But the first translation of the Quran, of the Quran in lingua, in the
00:15:47
Speaker
Valga language was done by this ancestor of mine who was called cormelus eryvabin. And four years ago, five years ago, at Sotheby, they wrote me a maid saying if I was interested to buy a copy, because there must be, I don't know, maybe four copies in all the world, but it was too expensive and I couldn't buy it. That is the thing I would have loved to buy.
00:16:11
Speaker
Yeah, so it's sold, you said, at a Sotheby's auction? Yeah, it was sold by Sotheby in a private translated, you know, I guess, because I never sold it. Sure. But I mean, it was very expensive, so I couldn't buy it. So your family must be pretty popular writers.
00:16:29
Speaker
No, lots of families are popular. They're always the same. So it's difficult to find things of the family. When I find them, I try to buy them. Or I try to buy, as this archive I have, it starts in 1260. So there's a lot to buy.
00:16:56
Speaker
You got a long ways to go, huh? Yeah, that means sometimes there are things you can buy because they're too expensive or some as I have lots of
00:17:06
Speaker
how you say, autograph important, autographs. Autographs. I mean, autographs, I mean, from, I don't know, Charles V to Louis Cateaux, to whatever you want. There are some which I would love to have that I don't. For an example, another thing I wanted to buy that belonged to our family, and it was maybe sold or stolen, we never understood. You know who is Verdi?
00:17:33
Speaker
Giuseppe Verdi. And the best friend of Verdi was called Oprendino Rivabena, and he was my family. It was his best friend. And there were 350 letters written by Verdi to Oprendino and Oprendino to Verdi. The one that Oprendino wrote to Verdi, obviously, I never saw them. But the one that Verdi wrote to Oprendino, we used to own them, and then they were stolen during the Second World War.
00:18:00
Speaker
And 150 are in the University of Yale. I wonder how they arrived there, but there they are. And the other 150 were sold. They asked me if I was going to sue this company of, you know, abortions two years ago.
00:18:18
Speaker
And I couldn't sue them because I had no documents that they were sold. And they were fortunately given to the Verdi Foundation in Milano. And so now the 150 are there. But also those were very expensive. I mean, too expensive for me to buy. Other other people that you know of that collect items from your family's history, such as these books or these letters or
00:18:48
Speaker
No, that I don't know. I don't know. There are lots of people who collect old books. So in the old books, maybe, sure, yeah.
00:18:59
Speaker
Yeah, the antiquarian books and letters and transcripts are really becoming more and more popular and collectible. I mean, some of the prices on some of this stuff I see at auctions is crazy.
Art, Antiques & Challenges in Preservation
00:19:13
Speaker
Yeah, it depends. You can buy a letter of Carlo Puinto for maybe $2,000 if it says nothing. It depends what it says. If it says he was, I don't know, a hypochondriac, it will cost you $50,000.
00:19:30
Speaker
Would you make this so I shall know yeah, oh no absolutely I think It at some point
00:19:40
Speaker
In our lifetime, I think it stops mattering about who it was and more so about how old it is, right? To have something from the 1400s or even the 1700s is objectively rare, you know? And at some point, I think it stops becoming about who the item is from and how old it is.
00:20:03
Speaker
Yes, it depends what you collect. The paintings of the 19th century, for an example, now you buy paintings of the 19th century for very little money, but you buy a niche couple for $3 million.
00:20:18
Speaker
So it means it's not time. It's what it is. It's fashion. You buy all the furniture in Italy, you can buy some amazing, beautiful furniture of the 17th century for really nothing. 20 years ago, they would cost you what would cost you $100,000 20 years ago. Now you buy it for 3000 because nobody wants them in their house. But there are lots of beautiful things that you can buy for very little. And I think that those kinds of things will come back.
00:20:49
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that people who are starting collections start to really understand the beauty of older things, whether it is books or even plates or
00:21:04
Speaker
Silverware right i think people start to see the beauty when they when they start to dive a little bit deeper into history. Of old things and a lot of times it doesn't have to go with your house but if you have good sense of taste right you can make it work yeah for sure and you know what the the.
00:21:23
Speaker
If you try to do now things that you used to do before, it's impossible in silver, as you will say, in plates or in whatever, because the artisans of the time, they had all the time to do the things because the time was not a cost. Now it's a cost.
00:21:41
Speaker
So now it's impossible to do. We try to do things with Julia in, if you see my website, we do things not in glass, but with crystal rock, agatha, these kinds of things, which I love to do. And I get inspiration from all pieces, rational pieces of the 17th century or these kinds of things, and Faberge of the 19th century, 18th century.
00:22:09
Speaker
To redo them is extremely complicated because there's no, um, they don't know how to do it fundamentally. And it costs a lot. Sure. It's like trying to recreate a whole line of Lalique glass, right? And I'm sure, um, that you have used some of the techniques that maybe Lalique has used in the past, but it's not easy. And there's a reason that these things are collectible. Yeah. By Lalique, it's full of Lalique around.
00:22:39
Speaker
I think you can easily find them. But the technique of Lalique is the technique we used to do our busts, for an example, which is called Che Rapès and Lost Wax. And it's how he used to do his vases and how we do, I don't know if you saw my website, the bust of Ottaviano Gusto is done with the same technique.
00:23:03
Speaker
Sure. That was the bus that was in the, um, like, uh, burnt orange reddish sort of color. Yeah. Yeah. That that's beautiful. Yeah. It's, uh, it's Amber. Yeah. The red, the yellow red. It's very intricate. And, um, how long did that take you to make that?
00:23:30
Speaker
Well, I'm laughing because we went yesterday morning, Julie and me, to open a new one that I did in Aventurina, which it takes maybe one month.
00:23:40
Speaker
If you're lucky one month, you have to be lucky because this one I just did now, which is in Aventurina. It's a kind of glass who is quite beautiful because normally it's deep green with little point of gold inside.
00:24:04
Speaker
Very nice. I'm excited to see that. Yeah, and we just took it out yesterday. It has to be acidated and then I hope it works. I'm sure it'll turn out great. So I want to touch back a little bit on something that you said about
00:24:22
Speaker
collections in general of things that you grew up around right um antiques uh which maybe weren't antiques at the time right or silver cups or family history articles i'm not that old there were
00:24:39
Speaker
the one still when I was a child I'm 59 no but but even for me you know my favorite stores where I live are antique shops and I love old things I love things that are older than me that have
00:24:55
Speaker
had a whole life before me, right? And when you go to think about where all of these items have been, I mean, your mind really gets going. So my question to you is, you grew up around a lot of stuff that were probably antiques with your family or passed down from your family. But a lot of these items were probably in some sort of collection and not a collection from a
00:25:22
Speaker
uh you know collecting with a purpose but things that your family had said objectively rare or beautiful and and they wanted to buy these items when they found them right and to me that's what a a collection is so for example you uh from what i've seen have a collection of silver cups and it might be five of them it might be 50 of them but either way
00:25:43
Speaker
Someone said you know that these are objectively good looking and they should buy them, right? So can you can you touch upon some of the things that you grew up around that you remember your family having collections of whether they were meant to be collections or whether they were just passed down through the family?
00:26:02
Speaker
difficult question maybe we had some sculptures that I don't see anymore which were sold maybe and I know we had a very nice collection of you know the carpets they were but they're not carpets they are the carpets you put on the wall
00:26:19
Speaker
Oh, sure, like tapestries. Yeah, sort of tapestry. But yeah, there was a very important collection that came from the Brandini family, from the Pope family. And they were all sold. I remember there was something like 16, and they used to cover all the big rooms downstairs at the second noble floor. And those were very beautiful. There is only one left who belongs to my sister now.
00:26:47
Speaker
I see. Okay. Going back to the exposures that you had growing up in the Palazzo, what was it like? Were you really surrounded by aristocratic figures growing up? Were you surrounded by businesses coming in and out? What was that really like? Business, no way. I mean, you were not allowed to talk about business. Yeah, it was not a conversation. I remember you couldn't talk about money.
00:27:16
Speaker
My mother used to tell me that she was not supposed to talk money. You wouldn't say that cost 1000 euros. Now we say it currently. But when I was a child, you were not supposed to talk about money.
00:27:31
Speaker
It was very vulgar to talk about money. So nobody talked about money. I mean, when I was very little.
Venetian Aristocracy & Financial Necessities
00:27:36
Speaker
So I had the aristocratic figures, you mean the paintings. They were all paintings of the family, which are still here because they are the only one that were not sold because nobody wanted them. Sure. And those are all original paintings, right? Yeah, obviously. And they're all here. I mean, they're all here around me and the painting of all the members of the family.
00:27:57
Speaker
because all the paintings were the first ones to be sold, obviously. Your mom really had quite the garage sale.
00:28:08
Speaker
Yeah, she had a huge sale because the palazzo was very, very, very full. But, you know, when my father died, it was very difficult in these years in Italy in the 70s. It was a very difficult moment. There was no money around and there were no men in the family. And so she had to sell to, you know, to pay the schools, to pay these kinds of things. My sister went to university in America. She went in Penn University. I went to Penn University for a week and then I left.
00:28:38
Speaker
because it was too difficult for me. She made the university in the States. It was very expensive for an Italian family. You had to take an apartment in the States to pay the rent, to pay the school. So she had to pay my school. I was in the military college, which was very, very cheap. So, you know, the 70s in Italy, it was complicated.
00:29:01
Speaker
Yeah. And I, you know, one of the questions I was going to ask you is that growing up in the Palazzo, there must have been thousands and thousands and thousands of items and paintings and, you know, dishes. But it seemed I was going to ask you when Amman came in and renovated where all that stuff went, but it seems like your mom has sold most of that a long time ago. Yeah. No, well, yeah, during the 70s, 80s. And then when we had to take away everything, it was very funny because we found
00:29:31
Speaker
a lot of big suitcases full of the dress of the cooks or the dress of the waiters, but tons of them, tons of them, and lots of pieces of the house or whatever. It took months to take away everything and throw away. We give a lot of books to a lot of people, old dresses, old costumes.
00:30:00
Speaker
We had to do it very, very quickly because they had to start the work. So it was very quickly done. It was fun. I remember in the garden, having into a summer in the garden, having all the cooks dressed with the cooks' hats in the pile in the garden. It was quite fun.
00:30:21
Speaker
I'm sure you stumbled upon some pretty amazing stuff and stuff that brought back a lot of memories for you when you were cleaning out. Yeah, but fortunately, you know, I have a horrible memory. I need to be what I did yesterday, so I really live in the, I have no memory, which is maybe a help sometimes, no?
00:30:40
Speaker
Probably helps in the sense that you don't remember the prices that your mom sold things at. I know that, yeah. At that time, it was really very, very little. Two dollars and you could buy whatever you wish. Oh my gosh. To be a fly on the wall for that. We are still sitting here, which is fantastic.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's the best part. Yeah.
Family Heirlooms & Coin Collection
00:31:05
Speaker
As a collector, the best collection that the family ever had was the collection of my great-grandfather, who was called Nicolop Apadopoli of the Brindini, who was the most important collection in Italy after the one of the king of coins.
00:31:23
Speaker
You say coins? Ancient coins. And the value was inestimated. And this great-grandfather of mine gave it as a present to the city of Venice. And now it's in the Museo Corral. And you can see it. It is all the Papadopoli collection in the Museo Corral. And I went last year because I wanted to see something. And they showed me this.
00:31:49
Speaker
immense collection with, you know, golden coins big like a plate. I mean, they were amazing. And with coins from the Roman period to now. Unbelievable. It's huge. And it's very, I mean, it's priceless. But unfortunately, it was given as a present, so I can't have it back. And not as a present to you. No, I would have loved to
Watch Collecting Passion
00:32:14
Speaker
have it. I would have sold it immediately, obviously.
00:32:19
Speaker
Too funny. So I would, uh, I'd be remiss to ask you about watches because I'm, I'm a watch collector myself. Do you collect watches yourself? I know you've done some work with, uh, Parmigiani Fourier and, uh, I'm interested to learn about kind of your, your take on that because it is art right at the end of the day. Yeah, it is. I love watches like you collect. It's a big word. I have.
00:32:45
Speaker
12-15 watches, which I love. That's more than you can wear in a week, right? That's more than you can wear in a week. I change watches. But I'm sad to say it's very, if you want to say it's very common, but my favorite watches are the vintage Rolex. They're hard not to love. They're hard not to love, but they're also very, very common if you want.
00:33:10
Speaker
But this Christmas, I made myself a present, and because I found this, my favorite Rolex old is a GMT Master, which for me is my best. And I found an old GMT Master of the 80s, inside is black, and gold and a chayo, a chayo. And you know the thing that goes around?
00:33:36
Speaker
Yep, the second stamp. Yeah, it's lost her color who was black and became gray. So it's very rare. And it's beautiful because you have the gray around and the black inside and it's beautiful. I love it. Ah, yes, the bezel. The bezel has turned gray. Yeah, exactly. So it's very, very beautiful. And I have the same one in brown. I love the JMT master brown.
00:34:01
Speaker
It's by far, in my opinion, maybe one of the greatest watches of all time. A lot of people have said, you know, it's the best everyday watch. It's the best dress watch. It's just all around. You can wear it with anything. And it never ties you. The Rolex is the only watch that you are never tired of wearing.
00:34:21
Speaker
No, and you know, it might be popular and in a sense, they're rare because to find them in good condition sometimes is a rarity where they haven't gone off to a Rolex service and been changed out a million times, right? So to find it in great condition is rare. They might not be the most rare in terms of the availability, but in general, to find something good condition these days from the past is rare.
00:34:50
Speaker
Yeah, and totally, totally original that they didn't change inside something that is very important. Yep, very important. I mean, they're the most, I mean, they're my favorite because I mean, there are some, Pate Philippe obviously is the best, is the best watch in the world, if you want, Pate Philippe, but I mean, they're extremely expensive.
00:35:11
Speaker
The Parmigianis, because they came up to me and they said, if I wanted to be a testimonial of the Parmigianis, and so I went to see and have a chat with Michel Parmigiani, who showed me some watches which are unbelievable, unbelievable.
00:35:31
Speaker
unbelievable old watches because they have a collection of old watches which are something really I tell you I never saw something like that in my life I remember there was this couple of watches of the 18th century done for a Chinese guy very rich
00:35:50
Speaker
All, I don't know how to explain to you, but it was a big, big watch. It wasn't a watch, a waste watch, obviously. It was a watch to put in your pocket, but it was big like two packets of Malboro.
00:36:06
Speaker
Wow. And there were gold with ruby inside, and there were designs with the mechanism of the moon, of the year, of the day, of the second, and it was double. I mean, there were two exactly the same. And I asked the guy, Michel Parmigiani, but why are they identical? Why would you do two identical?
00:36:32
Speaker
And he said because in China, at the time, you couldn't buy one watch. You were supposed to buy two because buying only one, it was bad luck. Funny, no? Amazing. Yeah, but if you go on the Parmigiani website, you will find the old collection and you'll see they have amazing things. Yeah, I'm sure their archive is pretty amazing. Amazing, amazing.
00:36:57
Speaker
Well, Giberto, I think it's time to dive in a little bit into the collector's gene rundown. And as you know, these are short, quick-answered questions. If you have a story behind one of them, you're more than happy to elaborate. This is totally up to you. And should we just get started? OK.
00:37:19
Speaker
So I think you answered this one earlier, but the first one is the one that got away, the one that you missed that you can't get over. And I think I think we know what that one is and I don't want to harp on it too much. I don't want to upset you. Let's go to the second one. What's the on the on deck circle? What do you have your eye on next, whether it be a painting or a piece of glass or a watch or something that you collect or maybe a book?
00:37:47
Speaker
Actually, I don't know. My dream was to have a Lamborghini Miura of the 70s, but I guess I will never be able to buy it.
00:37:56
Speaker
You know what's a Lamborghini you remember? Oh, sure. My family is in the Lamborghini business. We might be able to find you one. But no, you have to give it to me because it costs $3 million now. For me, it's the most beautiful car ever. We'll make a trade. We'll find you the mirror and we'll take a... You can come here and choose whatever you wish.
00:38:19
Speaker
All right, deal. I think I'm going straight for the book collection, maybe. Okay, done. Come with a new orange, please. All right, you got it. What's the unobtainable, the one that you can't have maybe because it's too expensive or in a museum, a private collection? I would love to have a Rembrandt. That's my dream. I think everyone's on the same page with you there.
00:38:46
Speaker
The page one rewrite, if you could collect one thing besides your current, what would it be and why? Well, I love Emory pottery from Japan. Beautiful. If I would be very rich, I would start taking beautiful but important and beautiful pieces, Emory of pottery of the 16th and 17th century. Lovely. Who's the goat for you? Who do you look up to in the collecting world?
00:39:15
Speaker
Ah, obviously, what an answer. It's quite obvious. Ralph Lauren. The most beautiful collection of cars in the world. He has the most beautiful car ever made, which is the Bugatti, you know, the black Bugatti. It's incredible. I have the book of his collection, which was given to me by somebody, which is, I mean, what a collection. That is my dream.
00:39:43
Speaker
It's pretty mesmerizing. I'm not sure if you ever saw the New York Fashion Week show that they did, but they did it in his car garage. Mama Mia, no, I'll go and look for it. I'll send you a link after this. Fantastic, because no, because I have the book of his collection, which is great.
00:40:02
Speaker
It's really good. He has the most beautiful car collection ever. It's very tasteful, you know? Yeah, exactly. He's full of taste. Even the, uh, the hypercars, right? The, the high-end Ferraris and Lamborghinis, they're either black or they're red and they're just elegant. They're always the best ones he has. Yep. Okay. The chase or the sale, do you, do you enjoy the hunt more or the ownership? The hunt all the time.
00:40:32
Speaker
I think that's been a unanimous answer so far with all of our guests. It's obvious. When you have it, you don't want it anymore. No, you're ready to sell it. You're ready to sell it, exactly. But no matter where you sell it, for the half the price you bought it, that's the problem.
Conclusion & Future Plans
00:40:49
Speaker
Lastly, Gip Giberta, do you feel that you were born with the collectors, Jean? Yes, I think so.
00:40:56
Speaker
All right, I love it. Giberto, it's been a pleasure to chat with you. No, it's me. I'm back in Venice, so I show you the archive. Yes, next time I'm in Venice, you're the first person I'm sending an email to because I think you and I need to have a coffee in the garden, look through some of the archive and have ourselves a day. Yeah, come with the Lamborghini. Don't forget it. All right, I won't forget it. Thank you. Thanks so much. Take care.
00:41:25
Speaker
Ciao ciao!