A recent tour to Mumbai and Delhi for the supporters of one of Europe’s eminent contemporary art institutions included a visit to the VIP Preview of The India Art Fair.

Now in its 15^th edition, it is the most important fair for contemporary Indian and international art in the country. With a focus on exclusive visits to artist studios and private collections, we also took in the rich history of India’s art and architecture with visits to Delhi’s opulent 16^th-century Humayun’s Tomb and the tranquil historic Lodhi Gardens, as well as dining at some the finest restaurants in both cities.

Our third trip of 2022 was for the patrons of one of the UK’s best opera festivals, offering the exclusive opportunity to enjoy specially arranged concerts and recitals in some of the most beautiful private and public palaces in Palermo.

With musicians and singers both flown in from abroad and from the local conservatorio, we arranged performances in venues such as the stunning Villa Palagonia at Bagheira, one of the finest examples of Sicilian Baroque architecture, and the wonderful Palazzo Lanza Tomasi, the last home of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the author of The Leopard. Private gala lunches and dinners in these special settings accompanied the music, as well as a private evening visit to the Cappella Palatina, the 12th-century chapel of the Norman Palace which is adorned with beautiful Byzantine mosaics.

To coincide with the major contemporary art fair Art Dubai and the expansive Dubai Expo 2020, we organised an educational tour for a group of young Los Angeles art professionals to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, spending 3 nights in each city to explore their diverse art scenes.

In Abu Dhabi, we visited the sublime Louvre Museum, the first in a group of major new museums which will make Saadiyat Island one of the most important cultural districts in the region. A visit to the Museum of the Future in Dubai provided a special experience to see a museum which was only a week old, one of the most unique works of museum architecture in the world. An afternoon on Alserkal Avenue, a former warehouse district home to all the most prominent art galleries in the city, gave us a thorough overview of UAE’s burgeoning art scene.

 

Our first trip of 2022 was one of our most spectacular yet: an 11-night trip to Egypt for a major UK museum patron group. The trip included special private access to the Pyramids of Giza and the Valley of the Kings, offering the rare chance to see these magnificent, historically significant sites without the usual throng of visitors.

After exploring the key monuments in Cairo and Luxor, we boarded our private luxury boat for a 4-night cruise down the Nile to take in the temples at Karnak, Esna and Edfu, enjoying the wonderful scenery as we sailed. Ending in Aswan, we even made the journey to Abu Simbel to explore the spectacular 13th-century BC temples carved into the rock.

A recent trip to Nigeria for an African acquisitions committee coincided with the second Lagos Biennial of Contemporary Art, located in the historic, derelict Nigerian Railway Corporation building and bringing together 37 leading artists from across 5 continents.

The crumbling interiors provided a unique backdrop for paintings, installations and photography which were charged throughout with social and political meaning. The Lagos art week also hosted the acclaimed Photo Lagos at the African Artists’ Foundation, as well as the slick Art X Fair which hosted us for their VIP programme.

As well as exploring the burgeoning art scene, we dined at some of the best new contemporary restaurants in the city, including NOK by Alara which doubles as the most exclusive fashion boutique in West Africa. We ended our trip at the studio of renowned printmaker, painter and sculptor, Bruce Onobrakpreya, whose studio in the heart of the Lagos mainland was packed with works from throughout his illustrious career, charting the history of Nigeria.

A recent tour to LA for a European museum patrons group included valuable special access to artists’ studios and collectors’ homes.

The breath-taking studio of Sterling Ruby, one of America’s most successful contemporary artists, covers over 4 acres with 122,000 sq. ft of workshops and exhibition space, housing Ruby’s monumental sculptures, fashion design studio, kilns and colossal installations. At Thomas Houseago’s studio, the artist gave us a preview of the towering sculpture which will sit outside the renovated Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

One evening, we made our way up to a mid-century modern home in Beverley Hills to explore a private collection which includes works by Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Louise Bourgeois, Donald Judd and countless others. Close by we visited another stellar private collection, in a remarkable contemporary home built into the hill, with a collection that included four Picasso paintings, four Mark Rothko paintings, and a sculpture garden with works by Calder and Miro framing the views over Los Angeles.

A tour to Japan for a London patron group offered a wonderful and varied insight into the complexities of Japan, ranging from the starkly modern to the old-school traditional.

Highlights of the former included visits to the extraordinary Enoura Observatory, founded by noted contemporary photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto to promote Japanese culture and aesthetics on an international level. The islands of Naoshima, Teshima and Inujima in the Seto Inland Sea have acquired pilgrimage status with their remarkable site-specific art installations by leading Japanese and international artists, including several buildings designed by Tadao Ando and works by James Turrell, Lee Ufan, and Ryue Nishizawa.

Kyoto offered a change of pace, with special visits to the house and studio of Kawai Kanjiro, noted early 20th-century Japanese potter and key figure in the mingei (folk craft) movement; the atelier of Kondaya Genbei, renowned for the exquisite obi’s they have been designing since the 1730s; and Ginkaku-ji, where the gardens designed by the great 16^th century landscape artist Sōami are considered to represent the height of temple garden design in Japan.