Art and Antique Dealer and travelling Argentina, Chile and Uruguay: 2006

Mendoza Argentina with Bob Frassinetti

One of the things I love the most about my job is the fact that I’m always on the move, always hunting for awesome treasures in and around this beautiful country that is Argentina.
This time I’m in Mendoza, a breathtaking city at the bottom of the Andes Mountains; home of the KM 0 of the marvelous Route 40, my favorite place in the whole wide world.
Such was my good luck this time that I managed to find a cozy small hotel on the roadside of Route 40!

The city of Mendoza was founded early in the Colonial times, in 1561. The Incas had reached the region we know today as Cuyo, and more precisely Mendoza in their late expansion years, just before they were conquered by the Spaniards. Therefore, this region was a greatly civilized area, known for its stupendous ecosystem and its great Pre Columbian constructions as well as its refined culture.
Today, more than 400 years after its foundation, Mendoza is a regional metropolis and a melting pot between the Argentine and the Chilean cultures, for it’s in the borderline between this neighboring countries.
Mendoza withholds Argentina’s finest wine production and it’s a precious tourism spot for travelers from around the globe. The brilliant combination of natural resources, winter sports, all year long natural spa facilities and the potent Aconcagua Mountain –the highest most peak of the American Continent- makes of Mendoza a dream destination for every single one of us who loves to enjoy life’s pleasures and treats.
The city of Mendoza is also the capital of the equally named province. This is a modern and clean, nature friendly capital, features a broad and rich cultural and artistic life.
A stone throw away from downtown Mendoza the visitor finds the ever-growing and improving fine vineyards, wineries and boutique wine producers. Most of these are open all year long for visitation and wine trying. Even better is to enjoy this wonderful option during the month of March, when it’s still summer warm in the region, in the fabulous Wineries Classic and Sports car Rally.
Among the rainbow of urban and ecology friendly tourism that can be found in Mendoza, there are several interesting sights within the city, such as the gorgeous trolleybus transport system.
This transport system was lately installed in Argentina by the late 1940s, specially located in Buenos Aires, but covering other major cities such as Mendoza and Rosario. However the pass of time and the evolution in the automobile industry made it fade away from the rest of the country except for Mendoza, Rosario and the latter addition of Cordoba city in the Mediterranean region of our country.
The first Trolleys of Mendoza were German, made by the famous Mercedes Benz in 1957 in Buenos Aires. Latter on Japanese origin vehicles came to replace the German ones Nissan / Tokyu Car / Toshiba. Most of which were maintained in such proper way that still running by the end of the millennium.
Among the interesting features of the trolley system in Mendoza is the fact that a big commercial shift took place in the mid 1980s when the province exchanged commercially its fine wines for mechanical goods with the USSR by means of the Uritzky, model ZIU 682 that complemented the Japanese fleet.
After the dissolution of the USSR, and together with the growth and development of Mendoza –implying the need of a broadening of their transport system- new imports were made from Germany and Japan to attend the growing demand.
This unique ecology friendly means of transport provides Mendoza with an even more appealing aesthetic to the visitor alike the local. While at the same time, the one of a kind scenario created by Mendoza’s unique features invites locals and foreigners alike to discover this magic land of beauty and good living.

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Thursday, August 17, 2006

A retrospective critique on Simone Gentile works of art. Art for a Reason

Retrospective critique on Simone Gentile works of art
Topic: Simone Gentile

A retrospective critique on Simone Gentile’s brilliant works of art

Simone Gentile was the daughter of the French couple Luis Gentile and Germaine Naudet.

Born in Paris on August 13^th 1918, she past away at age 78 in 1996 in Milan Italy.

From the crib she was strongly influenced by her mother’s aesthetic style. When she was a young teen she studied at the Duprre Decorative Arts School where she polished her own already developed probed style in drawing, learning how to engrave on wood under the guidance of Germaine de Closter who had mastered the Japanese engraving technique.

Gifted with a delicate and ardent temper by 1938 she fully advocates to the learning of the tough discipline of portrait guided by the Russian Master internationally famous Serge Ivanoff. The teacher and the student wed in 1946. They will travel the world together, learning and embracing new cultures and styles in South America, mainly in Brazil during the powerful and creative years of the 1950s.

Once in South America, she and Ivanoff will split. She will then marry to the Milanese architect Maurizio Mazzocchi.

In 1954 she opens a show at Muller Gallery in Buenos Aires, where the reviews and the receptiveness in the audience is fabulous and she begins to step stronger and stronger into the local and regional art scene.

Her style and technique grew together with her, blending the tight relationship with the decorative arts and the plastic repertoire of a consecrated artist. She developed a melodic dimension of art, where she established a personal parallel with music in a way linked to what masters such as Verdi or Bizet did. This nested richness in her art relates to her origins in the Industrial Decorative Arts of the 1920s Paris and the continuation in Art Nouveau with the influence of artists such as Fernand Léger, de Van Dongen and at some point the very own Matisse.

Art Deco being one of the last styles that managed to embrace architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing and engraving, this can also be discovered in the basis of Applied Arts, in which’s field Simone’s creative sensitivity developed and grew.

Her nude females were composed with a monumental grace, provided not by the size of the canvass but more in relation with the figure composition and proportion, as it was cleverly pointed out by Henry Moore. The expert eye will trace in Simone’s nude figures the reminiscence of some of Lalique bas-relief on glass.

Then we find a turning point in her concept and work, focusing much more on the experience the feeling of culture which she will masterly translate into canvases. Maurizio and Simone travel a lot and spend nearly 10 years in Brazil. Simone will enter the magical world of the African roots in the modern dazzling and revolutionary Brazilian culture. These are the days of Tropicalismo in Music, Bossa Nova and the birth of the acceptance of the African Brazil thru means of social Carnival.

They will frequently travel to Europe and America, to finally settle in Milan, were she will spend the last 30 years of her life.

According to the specialists such as Rafael Squirru to look retrospectively at Simone Gentile’s works means to incursion and discover countless chapters in the history of Art.

We have knowledge of her doing a copy of the Three Wise Men of Sassetta, overwhelmed by the Sienese Master’s colors.

She deeply admired a long list of Modern Painting Masters going from Botticelli to Modigliani, from Piero de la Francesca to Cezanne. And, nonetheless she managed to stamp her own authenticity stain in each and every one of her productions. Taking upon the chain of Master artists at the point it had stopped, proposing her own vision incorporating the best of each in her own particular language of art.

A continuous appearance in her works is portraits, evidence of her genius style, brilliant talent and master technique.

Simone Gentile

So if you are interested in buying Art or Antiques, and you are thinking of travelling to Argentina please feel free to email us…….. Please feel free to contact Flor Rodriquez by emailing her: Email: Flor Rodriguez. or Bob Frassinetti: For more information: Email: Bob Frassinetti. Press here to see all topics on Art, Antiques and Travel Information for Buenos Aires & Argentina:Daily Updates on Art, Antiques, Collectibles as well as travel information for Buenos Aires, Argentina. Phone me thru Skype, ID: Bob Frassinetti or you can also chat with me thru Yahoo, press here:

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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Art and Toy Museum Gallery and Flats. Buenos Aires.Real Estate Invesment in Argentina.

Art and Toy Museum Gallery and Flats. Buenos Aires.
Topic: Real Estate Argentina

Art and Toy Museum Gallery and Flats. Buenos Aires.Real Estate Invesment in Argentina.

The Real Estate markets as well as the influx of toursim in Buenos Aires are still growing. The lines we had traced a couple of years ago referring to these market’s evolution have accentuated the trends we already spotted before the economic turmoil was over.

Our analysis of the Argentine market was indeed very accurate. Statistics prove us right not only within the limits of our analysis but even more within the market areas we highlighted as in growing and developing conditions.

The Buenos Aires City government and its tourism area stated in a recently issued report: that the area’s income for 2005 surpassed the 1,000 millions of pesos, being this 18.6% more than 2004, and one of the highlights was the fact that the 5 star hotels occupation grew a 6% from 2004, reaching this year’s June-July period about an 82% occupation.

Following this line, the government stated that their preliminary studies of the foreign visitors flux especially in the month of July grew an 8.8% in relation to last year’s numbers.

Even more, the economy ministry of Buenos Aires states that this year’s tourism income was of 1,021,192,665.pesos, 71% of that number was the proportional money spent by foreign tourists. This is also another indicator of a sector growth, for it was 18.6% higher than in 2004.

Taking in consideration the evolution within these areas and these facts we can work on a much more sustainable information basis and trend-setter in order to develop a solid business plan.

Our project a couple of years ago set foot on a terrain that was just in its early developing stages here in Argentina. We pointed out the necessity and viability of high class, top notch, sophisticated yet homey accommodation options. Based on public government documents that evidenced a true historical opportunity within the local Real Estates market and a continuous increase within the flow of visitors to our republic, we came to the true conclusion that this was an outstanding opportunity. That was the ground analysis atop which we began to work on the development of a multinational investment project aiming to develop a boutique art oriented hotel in the heart of Buenos Aires. The magnitude of the project in many ways implied the need of us letting in a stand-by situation our work at the Buenos Aires Toy Museum and ArtDealer.

At the moment, the absence of any solid competition within this new field was indeed a solid reason to put our cultural and historical recovery projects on hold and fully advocate to this new concept area. The goal was to achieve a solid situation and gradually fuse our cultural activities blending the sophisticated bonvivant public with our selected antique and collectors’ activities.

If indeed we were among the first to spot this opportunity within the local market, we acknowledged the fact that this wasn’t a project we could carry on ourselves alone. The key factor was large numbers’ investment. The starting capital was to be a full figure, for this is a magnitude project. We posted our balance and ideas online, shared it with our friends and clients and began to net a web of potential business relationships.

At the same time we developed this idea, both ArtDealer and the Buenos Aires Toy Museum went thru an extraordinary development and growth. Internationally based recognized magazines were contacting us upon information; major Spanish speaking news papers were publishing articles on our project and our research work. It was a true turning point within a 7 year cultural project. This was the moment in which our intellectual production was beginning to collect years of hard work. We were and still are among the very few privileged cultural projects based in Argentina that are making a cultural statement within the world of antiques and collectors. This social and cultural acknowledgment is the stepping stone for making a true difference within the Art and cultural world and to relocate Buenos Aires among the greatest cultural capitals in the world by revaluing its historical production of collectibles, antiques and toys.

In this situation, and given the fact that the boutique hotel project was to be carried on essentially by the same small team that’s been developing ArtDealer and BA Toy Museum during the last couple of years we found ourselves in a crossroad decision making situation.
At the same time there’s a financial aspect that should be clearly presented. If as a matter of fact our business was taking international notoriety and we were becoming the indisputable expert opinion within our field, the symbolical capital was flowing at a much faster rate than the material capital. The differential capital flow together with an initial personnel limitation led us to put the boutique hotel project on hold while we –as a response to the growing demand of our intellectual products- responded the international and local demand for ArtDealer and Toy Museum.

However we were convinced that abandoning the interesting opportunity within the real estates market was a mistake. Hence we began to work on the initial ideas that sustained the Boutique hotel project in order to develop a sustained and segmented, profitable and achievable business.
The key element that appeared almost immediately was the fact that we should not put on hold our years’ cultural project, but we should take advantage of the rename we achieved to conquer around the world.
The staging and segmentation of this upcoming project was also a key factor, given the fact that ArtDealer TM is the head base here in Buenos Aires. We are convinced that we acknowledge our weak spots; however we are even more convinced that the strength should be weighed on our strong spots.
We are soon to be opening our new offices and Gallery in the heart of Palermo Hollywood.

Hereby we develop a detailed business plan for what we think is the new and best version of our boutique lodging: Art - Toy Museum Gallery and Flats.

Art dealer 2005 Business plan (Term 2005-2009)

NOTE: this is the first and preliminary version of a broader business plan that will take into consideration variable alternatives of property, construction and recycling.
-- We are convince that in order to develop a profitable hotel, the initial capital investment –not only in terms of money but also in terms of advocated human resources working full time in this development- exceeds our current possibilities, and implies an unnecessary risk that can and will be taken in a staged and organized form in order to maximize the potentialities.
-- Building a limited number of top quality design flats to be rented by the week and/or month, owned by our investors not only implies an immediate return of the investment at a competitive rate, but also implies a innovative twist to the boutique concept.

Insight balance and perspectives:

--There’s an increase in the flux of tourism to our country that has a strong base in the Peso/ Dollar (or Euro) relation.
--Buenos Aires is perceived as a centre of art, antiques, collectible, fashion to all Latin America, a safe place where the cosmopolite feel of the European lands merges with the very own Latino way of being.
--All Argentina is getting to be on the map (even the Hilton is expanding to Ushuaia) before it was adventure tourism, now it’s also luxury and glamour.
--Palermo Hollywood, Soho, Viejo, are neighbourhoods that have grown from lower class and middle small workshops to a bohemian BOBO style area, were locals and foreigners meet and exchange.
--Properties have jumped to extraordinary amounts comparing to only 5 years ago.

So ask yourself these questions:

How to keep up now and get into the Real Estate boom and still make your investment work?

How much more can the sq meter be worth in this part of BA?

They are selling the sq meter from in sophisticated areas like Palermo Hollywood1400 U$S to 3000 U$S-5000 in Puerto Madero,so how can you invest less money per sq meter and still get back an interest rate equal to, or more, than 2% or 3% per month?

Interested, contact me. For more information :Email Bob Frassinetti.

Bob Frassinetti. Copyright 2005. Roberto Dario Frassinetti

Friday, August 04, 2006

Bob Frassinetti and magazine Revista 23 Vientitres 3 de Agosto Buenos Aires Argentina

Bob Frassinetti. The Buenos Aires Toy Museum Argentina

Art and Antique Dealer and travelling Argentina, Chile and Uruguay

Friday, September 15, 2006

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Touring around Mendoza, Argentina with Bob Frassinetti