Nazy Vassegh: Reinventing the Traditional Art Fair with Eye of the Collector

What were the reasons behind choosing Two Temple Place for Eye of the Collector? Well, it’s an absolutely beautiful historic gem in central London, and the minute I walked in, I just knew it was fit for what we wanted to do. The Palazzos in Venice were a big inspiration for me, and I thought that Two Temple Place was a wonderful example of a Neo-Gothic structure, that was as close to a Venetian palazzo. It was the former private office and apartment of William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919). He spared no expense in creating this visual environment, because he worked with the then contemporary craftsmen and artists of the day to create the interior, so as you walk through, there are statues up the staircases, reliefs all around the walls and the ceilings. It all points to people that he admired in arts, culture and literature - he was a collector too. Having previously been at the helm of Masterpiece, why did you want to create a fair without booths? How do you give galleries their own identities? Having worked in the art world for as long as I have, I’ve seen the different aspects of this art ecosystem. The reason behind creating Eye of the Collector was that I wanted to put back the joy of collecting within an art fair landscape again. As an advisor, I could see that quite a lot of my clients were becoming fatigued by the…