New York (AFP)

Eduardo Costantini took the phone and offered, without hesitation, $ 3.13 million for one of the great works of the Mexican-Spanish artist Remedios Varo, thus winning the jewel of the Latin American auction of spring recently organized by Christie's .

This 72-year-old Argentinian entrepreneur and collector, one of the richest men in Argentina with a fortune estimated by Forbes in 2018 at $ 1.2 billion, is used to paying millions for master paintings he buys for the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires (MALBA).

He founded the museum in 2001, in the midst of the economic crisis in Argentina, donating some 300 works to him, and also making available the private collection that he has started to build since.

Today MALBA, with some 800 works, "probably has no larger collection of Latin American art on display, comparable perhaps to that of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA)", Mr. Costantini, interviewed by AFP in a large New York hotel.

It is his passion for art, more than 40 years old, that allowed to create the MALBA, "to give a public and social dimension to what was a personal project", explains this elegant man who was a broker, banker and today promoter of large real estate projects in Argentina, Uruguay and Miami.

Since he started in the art world at barely 20 years old, by buying two canvases in a gallery, Mr. Costantini is constantly in search of emblematic works of the best Latin-American artists, like " Simpatía (The rabia del gato) ", which he bought at Christie's auction in May, and which will be added to the large exhibition on Remedios Varo that MALBA is preparing for March 2020.

- Record after record -

In 1995, this son of an Italian immigrant who arrived in Buenos Aires at the beginning of the 20th century was paying a record $ 3.2 million for Frida Kahlo's "Autorretrato con chango y loro" (1942).

But he renounced, lack of sufficient budget, to acquire the spectacular "Baile de Tehuantepec" (1928) of the other glory of Mexican art, Diego Rivera.

So, when the painting reappeared 21 years later, he spent what no one had ever paid for a Latin American work: "16 million and a few".

The previous record for Diego Rivera in 1995 was just over three million.

Now Frida and Diego, the most famous artistic couple in Latin America, "are together, happy husband of MALBA," he said with a smile.

He says he also paid "record after record", for works by Brazilian artists Tarsila do Amaral and Emiliano Di Cavalcanti or Uruguayan Joaquín Torres García.

But others escaped him, sometimes leaving him with bad memories. Like when he missed "La tierra es un hombre" by Chilean artist Roberto Matta, or a "spectacular" Leonora Carrington for which he admits he did not offer as much as he should have.

Officially, it is the MoMA that holds the most expensive Latin American work, since the New York museum has paid, according to Mr. Costantini, $ 18 million for "A lua" (La luna, 1928) of Tarsila do Amaral.

When asked, the New York museum did not confirm this amount.

But MALBA holds another Tarsila, "Abaporu", which could be worth more than 40 million today.

Mr Costantini is nevertheless delighted that Latin American works are becoming increasingly visible in major museums, such as the Tate Modern in London, the Reina Sofia in Madrid and the Pompidou Center in Paris.

- "Survivors" -

"We Argentinian entrepreneurs are survivors," says Costantini, referring to the successive crises in the Argentine economy, including a recession in 2018, which pushed the third of the population below the poverty line. .

Crisis or not, the MALBA provides a programming: "What luck it has!", He says with a laugh, explaining play a role of "damper" for the museum.

In the face of the Argentine crisis, "we must make budget cuts", he explains, an expression unfortunately banned by the Argentine political class according to him, like the President Mauricio Macri, who hopes to be reelected in October, thanks to "utopian" propositions.

Argentina "suffers from a subversion of values ​​due to a historic level of corruption," he argues. "We have to accept our limits and not spend more than we can spend."

? 2019 AFP