Portrait of Giorgio Baratti by Lituanian theatre, television and cinema actor Juozas Budraitis

Giorgio Baratti, born in Tuscany though Milanese by adoption, is a famous antiquarian known all over the world and a perfect connoisseur of Art History. Since 1964 he has been working in the antiques field, first in Pisa, Florence and then in Milan where, in 1982, he founded Giorgio Baratti Arte Antica.

In the course of the years the Gallery, located in the heart of Milan, underwent a significant exhibition expansion and thus gradually stood out as an important reality in the life of Italian and international antiques, offering its customers a broad variety of items and a wide choice. The Gallery is currently housed in the prestigious Palazzo Bigli Ponti, one of the most important Palazzi in Milan that combines Bramante-inspired architecture with Renaissance Lombard painting.

Giorgio Baratti has been a consultant for the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the National Gallery in Washington and the National Museum in Warsaw. He was a Consultant for the Catalogue of Italian Antiques n° 3 and 4, 1993/1994, Giorgio Mondadori Editore. For some years he was on the Board of Management of Finarte and was later Superintendent of the Antiques Departments (up to 2002/2003).

The Galleries have taken part in many fairs, including MINT (Milan International Antiques and Modern Art Fair), INTERNAZIONALE in Via Turati to the Permanente, Milan, GOTHA in Parma, Collezionismo Internazionale in Palazzo Venezia, Rome, and Biennale di Antiquariato in Florence. The museums that have acquired, over the past years, several works from Giorgio Baratti’s collection include, most importantly, the Paul Getty Museum in Malibu and the Louvre Museum. The broad expertise and mature experience of Baratti have accredited him as the curator of private collections of important, national and international, patrons.

Giorgio Baratti Antiques Gallery

The works from Baratti’s collection are promoted also through exhibitions, accompanied by catalogs, and are often lent to museums for important exhibitions. From 6 February to 11 April 2010, the Town of Cesena paid homage to Giorgio Baratti with a scientific exhibition curated by Prof. Massimo Pulini, called Lo Studiolo di Baratti, which exhibited and published some art works in his possession. Prof. Andrea Emiliani, Prof. Claudio Strinati, Prof. Giancarlo Sestieri, Prof. Giancarlo Gentilini and Prof. Nicola Spinosa have all mentioned Baratti.

The items selection of Giorgio Baratti Antiques can satisfy diverse customers ranging from the demanding collector to those looking for a touch of antiquity and prestige or an intelligent and secure investment. The activities of the Gallery tend to focus on antique paintings by Italian or foreign artists; the works, most of which have never been exhibited before, usually depict profane or mythological themes, although the Gallery also offers religious works in addition to portraits, still lifes and landscape paintings. The Gallery offers also Haute Epoque sculptures in marble, metal or wood and furniture dating back to the 15th-18th century. The furnishing diversify themselves both by period and geographical area; the rare furniture from Renaissance times is worthy of special attention.

From the Introduction of Giorgio Baratti, collezione. Selezione di opere d’arte antica (Grafiche Veneziane, Venice, 2011).

Giorgio Baratti, Collezione. Selezione di opere d’arte antica

Giorgio Baratti belongs to an historical category of men once defined as “amateur-marchands” and he is interested and schooled in painting as he is in sculpture and art history.

Talking with him means listening to tales of old friends, of scholars of today and of the past, as well of men of economy and of science. He is also a man who delights in the pleasures of life, not just of art. One could say he delights in them in equal measure.

When it comes to the world of art, more specifically to methods of attribution, he even patiently puts up with the eccentricities, for want of a better word, of the opinions of the critics, of the names brought to him for his expert opinion – which is unquestionable – eccentric opinions he evaluates with a great sense of fairness. Giorgio Baratti has travelled the world over, has worked for the National gallery in Washington DC and knows an extraordinary range of people he trusts and admires.

Andrea Emiliani