Art in its mistery mixes together the different beauties
G. Puccini: Tosca
Atto 1 - "Recondita armonia"
BEAUTY stunned me at birth.
It is that virtue before which I have not nor have I ever had defenses.
I get excited in front of grace, elegance, harmony, and I need to study their mysteries and to establish with them the most intimate contact.
MEMORY on the contrary can be acquired only by growing up, but also, by growing up you can lose it. My personal memory is a garden that I cultivate with love, but I cannot give up investigating through objects and their history, even that of those who preceded us in other ages.
ANTIQUE TRADE is the wonderful craft that allows me to live life immersed in these two dimensions.
The landing
I couldn’t define how much and how Randomness and Fatality combined to determine my arrival in the world of Antiques.
In most cases this profession is inherited dynastically together with all that wealth of knowledge and above all goods that the previous generation(s) were able to accumulate and pass on.
This is not my case and I don’t mind having drawn my path on a completely blank sheet of paper.
In my twenties, to complete my artistic training studies on time and maintain my independence, I needed a solid economic income and so “coincidentally” as my first job, I agreed to do the antiques markets which, taking place only in weekends, they allowed me to follow academic courses.
I started as an employee of Mrs. G who was present in the main squares while at the same time I covered the smaller markets for her.
She was very satisfied with our collaboration and so was I.
The father
Subsequently my father also fell in love with that profession; until then he had covered important roles in the administrative field within structured companies and all of a sudden that bohemian market life, consumed between chimerical research of the piece, entrepreneurial courage, adventures and misadventures of all sorts, exposure to the elements and comparison massive with people, must have seemed irresistible to him.
He was ready for the existential turning point.
He counted on my support in this project, both in consideration of my studies and the experience already gained in the field.
Despite the many doubts I might have had about embarking on a family business, I did not shy away from the call and I am happy to have accompanied him and shared that adventure for a couple of years.
He gave me all the trust that could be granted: he left me a lot of space when it came to choosing what direction to give to the research and how to invest the entire available assets – however small it was – according to my taste and my intuition .
We made mistakes together in everything that was necessary to make mistakes in order to grow in those very first years.
He was a good administrator and he knew how to dare perhaps more than me, this, among other things, I feel I must recognize.
However, family collaborations are never easy and we were certainly not an exception; the ending is that I chose to sever the tie and start my own business.
But the internal struggle raged and the heart had to be thrown over the obstacle…
The schism had not yet taken place because I was terrified not only by the idea of starting a “barefoot and naked” business, without work materials or capital to invest, but above all because after years I would go back to being a “smart seller” (i.e. a market trader without a permanent job who shows up at every market at dawn without knowing if he will be able to mount).
I have always loved Beauty and Antiques but I faced street life with a certain sacrifice and this further complication was psychologically a big obstacle.
The license
And psychologically speaking, it was Dr. R who played an interesting role in my destiny.
I still think that the dimension of analysis and self-identification are a balance, but at that time I was particularly charged and perhaps it was also a real need. Anyway, Dr. R was my psychotherapist.
I told her that Mrs. G (the one I had started working for) was retiring and selling her street vendor license, i.e. the permanent positions acquired in the main antiques markets after years of presence. She wanted 15 million lire.
I didn’t take it into consideration both because I hesitated when faced with such an advanced definition of what my working future would be, and because with my savings I wouldn’t have reached 5 million.
R. persuaded me that the sale of G and my need for freedom were synchronic facts that were more fatal than random and that the opportunity should not be missed. Among many persuasive arguments Dr. R offered to lend me the entire sum to buy Mrs. G’s license.
It was exactly the year 2000; so much perfection in all those zeros…
A new millennium, a new era, a new path echoed and projected themselves with phantasmal seductiveness.
I ended up partially accepting the doctor’s proposal and at the end of the session she wrote me a check for 10 million.
“I blindly believe in you Marzio and in your abilities, I have no doubt that you will be able to give them back to me”.
The beginning
I didn’t use that money to purchase the license but rather for the very first objects; I had to have something to sell (!)
Mrs. G trusted me and so she sold me her license in exchange for signing my first, unique (and very expensive!) promissory notes.
I worked hard and between January and June 2000 I managed to pay off every debt with G and R and lay the foundations of my self-employed business.
I owe my arrival in the world of antiques to the guidance of one, to the support of the other, to my father’s choice to converge in that world that I had recently been exploring, and certainly to the trust of all three.
I couldn’t have stayed in the square for long and a year later in 2001 I opened that shop in Via Romana which I expanded in 2007 together with Ilenia with whom I have since shared life in all its declinations, sentimental and professional.
But that’s another story and it’s a work in progress…