Words by Marcelo García Casil

Last Wednesday, Maecenas was one of the proud sponsors of the 10th Deloitte Art & Finance Event in Milan. It was our first experience having a booth at such a high profile industry event, and we’re truly blown away by the amount of interest in Maecenas!

There were five of us at the event and at times people had to queue before they could talk to us. Having such strong validation from an international audience comprising top auction houses, private collectors, galleries, family offices and investors is very motivating — we can’t wait to launch our pilot next year!

First of all, and for the benefit of those who are new to the art world, Deloitte Luxembourg is the most respected and most prolific Art & Finance consultancy in the world. They produce a 200-pages long annual report on the Art & Finance industry which is the result of a full year of research, market surveys, data aggregation and consolidation, and deep market analysis. This report that Deloitte Luxembourg produces is THE Art & Finance reference, and its annual publication is anxiously awaited by the entire industry. Every time a new report is published, Deloitte holds a full-day event in a different city, and invites the key stakeholders of the art world to attend.

We had a booth right at the entrance of this highly regarded event, which gave us great visibility. Nobody coming through the front door could miss Maecenas.

Besides sponsoring the event and publishing a full-page advert in the report, we were also invited by Deloitte to be featured in an exclusive four-page interview. The interview is not a commercial ad and was at the gracious request of Deloitte, spurred out of their interest in Maecenas. You can download the full report to check it out.

The event went incredibly well. We had the opportunity to share the floor with firms like Christie’s, AXA Art (the largest art insurer in the world), several collectors and galleries worldwide, and many investors including art funds, family offices and asset managers.

There was a constant crowd of people at our booth interested to ask questions and find out more about Maecenas. It was very intense, yet very satisfying to see that Maecenas generated so much interest from industry players. This is something that we had already validated throughout the last 18 months with extensive individual meetings, but this was the first time we were featured at an event of this magnitude and as such this was a very important test, which we passed with honours!

Overall it was a great and fruitful experience. We left with numerous leads from all fronts of the industry and a number of very exciting opportunities to strike deals with some key players who are very excited about the transformation that Maecenas will achieve in the art market. Some of this are potential partnerships with renowned global institutions, and others are artwork and investment opportunities in the hundreds of millions.

We are all super energised and excited about what lies ahead for us, and the team is more than ever working hard to hit our next milestone which is the pilot.

Thanks for your ongoing support and for believing in us. We have a great community of quality members, and we look forward to it growing and becoming stronger as we move along.

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