Thursday, December 7th - 4:15 pm
Conversation between collector Ella Fontanals-Cisneros and María Sancho-Arroyo on crucial aspects of contemporary collecting. Special emphasis will be placed on the visibility of Latin American artists, the significance of art fairs, and the role of private collecting in this field.
Ella Fontanals-Cisneros is a philanthropist, an entrepreneur, businesswoman, and a collector of contemporary art. She began collecting art in the 1970s and her collection has an international profile with emblematic figures of modern and contemporary art, with a focus on Latin American art. As the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection has grown and developed, its scope has broadened. There are four main areas of interest that have been systematically increasing in recent years: geometric abstraction from Latin America; contemporary international and Latin American art; contemporary video; and modern and contemporary photography. Today the collection has more than 2,500 works. In 2002, Ella Fontanals-Cisneros established the non-profit Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) to support and foster cultural understanding, and educational dialog among Latin American artists and global audiences. CIFO is a platform for emerging, mid-career and established Latin American artist through the Grants & Commissions Program, the CIFO Collection, and other related art and cultural projects in the United States of America and internationally.
Maria Sancho-Arroyo
Maria is an art professional with over 30 years of expertise in the art market. She began her journey in museums, notably the National Museum of Catalan Art (MNAC) in Barcelona and the Louvre in Paris, before transitioning to Sotheby’s Auction House in London. There, she gained extensive knowledge across all facets of the auction market, particularly in business and client development. Maria has been an integral part of numerous auctions and collaborated closely with Sotheby’s European branches and other market participants.
She currently serves as adjunct faculty at the Sotheby’s Institute in NYC, instructing on art market subjects for the MA in Art Business with a focus on International Art Markets and the Auction and Gallery Business. Additionally, she holds the position of Art & Culture Director at SigmArt, a digital platform dedicated to the arts.
Maria frequently lectures on art market trends at seminars and universities, including Georgetown University (DC), Tsinghua University (Beijing), CENTRO (Mexico City), PINTA Miami and ADA Madrid.
Maria is proficient in Spanish, Italian, French, and English. She is a regular contributor to the “Giornale dell’Arte,” the Italian edition of the Art newspaper. Additionally, Maria is a member of the ArtTable DC chapter, as well as TIAMSA - The International Art Market Studies Association, and ICOM - The International Council of Museums.
