'God, you are demanding': as the Museo Carlo Bilotti opens in Rome, the collector explains to Susan Moore why he prefers to commission rather than buy works of art, and describes the way artists from Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst have risen to his challenges

Apollo, June, 2006 by Susan Moore

On 10 May, the Museo Carlo Bilotti opened in the orangery of the gardens of the Villa Borghese in Rome. At its core is a gift of 20 paintings by Giorgio de Chirico. That the City of Rome should refurbish a historic building-originally the Casino dei Giochi d'Acqua--in the Borghese Gardens to house part of the collection of an Italian-American businessman is both an unusual honour and a reflection of the desire of its mayor, Walter Veltroni, to bring more modern and contemporary art to the heart of the Eternal City. For not only will the museum show Bilotti's De Chiricos, draw on the collections of the Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico and house the library of the late art historian Maurizio Fagiolo Dell'Arco, an authority on Balla and De Chirico, but in addition its large ground floor will host loan exhibitions of contemporary art.

Its inaugural show is a fitting tribute to the extraordinary series of monumental works Carlo Bilotti has commissioned over the past four years from Damien Hirst, Jenny Saville and David Salle. The 71-year-old Bilotti is remarkable--possibly even unique--among today's collectors of contemporary art in preferring to commission rather than simply buy work by the artists he admires. Any rich man can sit in a saleroom and raise his hand; Bilotti has always wanted to be involved, to play a part in the creative process. In over 40 years of collecting, he has occasionally bought--and sold--at auction, and through galleries, but he has also commissioned a score of works by the likes of Salvador Dali, Andy Wathol, Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Rivers and Eric Fischl, as well as Salle, Hirst and Saville, the last of whose triptych of paintings, Atonement, was completed only weeks before the Rome opening.

For Bilotti, artists fall into two categories. 'There is the first type, who say, "I do whatever I want to do, and I don't do commissions." I think they are the lesser artists. Then there is the second category, who welcomes the challenge and who always look for new stimulus. I enjoy working with these artists.' When I suggest that he may be an artist manque, painting vicariously through other artists, he muses. 'Maybe. Perhaps it is a desire to create something that would not exist without you. I could have been anything in my life, except for an artist.'

What he did do was end up in the perfume business. Born into a prosperous family in Cosenza, Calabria, Bilotti studied law in Naples and Palermo, buying his first work of art, a De Chirico drawing, at the age of 20. In 1961, he went to New York 'for fun, to see some friends'. He ended up staying--and continuing to buy art. By 1967, his collection of De Chirico and the Italian futurists was sufficiently substantial for him to be invited to exhibit them, which is how he met his future wife, Margaret Embury Schultz (Tina), a student on the exhibition committee. He began to buy modern masters: his collection now includes Picasso, Matisse, Leger, Miro, Chagall and Kandinsky as well as contemporary art. He liked getting to know the artists.

His first commission was for Dali, whom he asked to make four paintings about Paris for his company, which sold French fragrances. 'When I saw the paintings, I did not like them at all', recalls Bilotti. 'They were banal, taken from picture postcards, and they did not mean a thing.' That he should go on to repeat the experience, and with Dali, is revealing of Bilotti's tenacity. In the early 1970s, he bought Dali's sketch for the Crucifixion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the figure of Christ floating in the air against a grey background. 'Since I knew the artist', explains Bilotti, 'I called him and said, "Maitre, will you add something?'" Dali agreed, so long as Bilotti took the painting to him in Barcelona. There, over dinner at the Ritz, he asked for another $50,000. 'He could see I was very upset', says Bilotti, 'so he made me an offer. "If you let me add what I want, and give me the $50,000, I will make you another painting. What would you like?'" Bilotti requested a soft watch--and Dali responded with Wounded Soft Watch.

His relationship with Warhol proved far more rewarding. The two became good friends at the time the artist's magazine, Interview, was failing. Says Bilotti: 'Its editor, Bob Colacello, rang me up and asked if I would advertise--none of the luxury goods people would touch it. I gave them ads for Nina Ricci and Pierre Cardin. Andy told me later that I had saved his magazine--once our competitors saw that we were advertising there they all slowly followed suit.'

In 1982, they went to see the De Chirico show at MOMA. At dinner, Warhol revealed that De Chirico was one of his favourite artists. 'I was astounded, so I asked him why?', says Bilotti. 'Because De Chirico repeats himself. He does the same painting over and over again, in the mind of Andy--he had the simplest, most direct mind--De Chirico was the father of Pop, repeating images so that people would retain them, understand them.' Bilotti asked Warhol to make a series of De Chirico paintings for him. He selected six paintings, and Warhol made two paintings of each, repeating the same image four times (Fig. 3).