Mexican Antiquarian

Latin CEO: Executive Strategies for the Americas, May, 2001 by Daniel J. Mccosh

Rodrigo Rivero Lake moves in the highest social and political circles of Mexico. If you want something ancient and beautiful, not to mention valuable, he's the man to see.

SETTING FOOT IN THE PENTHOUSE apartment of Rodrigo Rivero Lake is like entering a combination museum and warehouse. His card reads "antiquarian," but talking to him is more like talking to a curator, at least at first. "My house is bare, all my pieces are on loan to museums," he moans, partly in jest, surrounded by dozens of 17th century masterworks.

Once off the elevator to Rivero's penthouse--which overlooks Mexico City's Chapultepec park--visitors must navigate down a hallway that is actually a path through a tightly packed collection of antique furniture, paintings and architectural pieces. At the end there is a vacant bench that acts as a waiting area. It is there we met Rivero, a highly energetic if some-what disheveled man, who appeared clad only in socks, one black and one gray.

It is this odd mix of irreverence and respect for history that defines Rivero, who refers to himself as one of the last of the dying breed of "field antiquarians." His vast collection, much of it from Mexico's colonial past, is rich with religious art--carvings of angels and cross-carrying conquistadors, paintings of priests and madonnas, ivory effigies of Jesus and the saints.

"This business is totally practical learning. You can learn styles and ideas in school, but the field antiquarian is a rare sort today," he says. "With the Internet a lot of people receive images to study, but you have to enter large warehouses, palaces and huts to find the piece that is waiting for you to hold."

Rivero began his field studies at age 19, when he set out for India on a buying/scouting trip that sparked his interest in Chinese porcelain. (He is currently the only Mexican member of the London-based Oriental Ceramic Society) Despite -- or perhaps because of -- this Asian influence, Rivero has a special expertise in Mexican art that arrived in Asia through ancient trade routes, and in Asian pieces influenced by Mexican styles. He has always, he says, been fascinated with art from Mexico's storied past.

"Antiquarians are born, not made, just as a cellist, a stage actor, or a treasure hunter is destined from birth," writes Colombian author Alvaro Mutis in the introduction of "La vision de un Anticuario," Rivero's autobiographical book that catalogs his life and collection. The tome gained some fame recently when it was photographed by Time magazine on the coffee table in the foreground of a portrait of President George W Bush and his wife at home, awaiting the results of the 2000 US presidential election. According to Rivero, he gave the book to then Gov. Bush's wife Laura when she visited the home of a mutual friend in Mexico.

Rivero's esoteric but academic style can be traced back to his grandparents, when his grandfather, the gringo Dr. Frank Lake, was shunned by the parents of Aurora Cuesta Gallardo as a Protestant not worthy of the Cuesta Gallardo family

Not to be discouraged, Lake disguised himself as a coal worker, and managed to visit the young Aurorita. Once he was discovered, the Cuesta Gallardo family banned visitors to their daughter, except for Bible studies with a bishop from Ilinois. The family was surprised to later discover that the respected foreign priest happened to be Lake, once again in disguise. Ultimately they gave in to his persistence. Two generations later, Rivero himself says the priest disguise has helped him out of more than one difficult customs situations.

But it is not his affection for priests that led Rivero to become a top collector of art with religious themes. He says it is more a question of timing, given that he was in Asia during a period when many religious treasures were being destroyed--and could be saved. The importance of the Catholic Church as a patron of Latin American art since colonial times has also been a large factor.

While Rivero is a part-owner of La Bodega Antiques in Scottsdale, Arizona, most of his sales are to private clients who don't want to attract a lot of attention. His familial connections have served him well: His grandmother's Cuesta Gallardo family was part of the inner circle of former President Porfirio Diaz, and Rivero went to school with many of Mexico's top leaders. His wife edits the hot new celebrity magazine Quien (Who).

Buyers come to him in search of specific types of art. He has also developed a strategy akin to a mini investment fund. "Among my portfolio of clients, there are some that are interested in joining me, in something like a bank," says Rivero. Pooling their resources, Rivero buys entire collections, which clients can then draw from or use as a base to trade for other works he has.

Some of Rivero's favorite pieces include the encrusted and painted screen "La Batallas de Alejandro Fameslo," which dates to the 17th century and depicts a religious battle between Catholics and Ottomans. Rivero recounts how he traveled through Europe in search of the screen after he first found mention of it in an 18th century chronicle, He acquired the piece from a Jesuit school in Spain, and after passing through customs agents in Franco's Spain as well as in Mexico, the piece currently adorns his bedroom.