The interviews of ProfessioneArte.it
He is Italo Carli Art Insurance Executive Arte Generali.
Five questions to get a preview of the great art professionals, the daily challenges to face, the choices that have determined their path in the system and in the art market, the changes under the banner of digital and the advice for those who want to undertake the same career in collaboration with ProfessioneARTE.it.
Innovator, attentive to new technologies and ready to take on the challenges for the insurance market for works of art.
Italo Carli experienced innovation within IBM as an Engineer, but his spirit and curiosity, together with the transversal skills developed, accompanied him on his journey within the world of Fine Art Insurance.
Italo has an innate talent: that of knowing how to observe the changes in the art sector with a careful and insightful eye, finding solutions such as the cataloging and archiving of Corporate Art Collections to go beyond the simple Excel file.
In this interview he tells the enthusiasm of a world, that of Fine Art Insurance, that fascinates him, his is a stimulating profession, but be careful because the skills acquired over time and with experience will have to be constantly updated also in view of new changes in the Post Coronavirus.
Italo Carli is the Art Insurance Executive for Arte Generali.
He was CEO of AXA ART Italia, the AXA Group branch specializing in the protection of assets and HNWIs Lifestyle.
Graduated in electronic engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan, he started his career in the IT world before approaching the insurance sector.
Italo’s commitment has been fundamental in the development of pioneering projects within the strategy of the AXA ART Company.
Member of the AIFO Academy (Italian Family Office Association), non-executive director of the Italian startup Designitaly and main speaker in numerous seminars related to the protection of art and ArtTech innovation.
1. How did your path in the art world started?
What is an engineer doing with an IT background in the art world?
Often the most fruitful encounters in one’s personal and professional paths occur at the meeting and interference points between two lines of thought that seem completely different, in my case when I had the opportunity to put together my technical and managerial skills with the my humanistic education and my passion for Art to dedicate myself to the insurance of Fine Art.
2. How would you describe your profession today?
With an adjective: stimulating!
A job that allows you to have contacts and relationships with always interesting people, whether they are collectors, artists or professionals in the sector, who I would say almost by their nature require strong and different individualities.
Add to this that this sector too is going through a period of strong change of models, behaviors, tools available to “make” art and manage it.
Art has always accompanied, and sometimes anticipated, the changes and evolutions of society and this profession allows us to be able to grasp the signals that come from the Artists.
3. How has your profession changed over time?
The way of insuring art has changed, policies today have certainly become clearer and more readable for the customer, while the insurer needs to evaluate phenomena that did not exist before in today’s dimension such as climate change, terrorism rather than the most recent pandemic!
4. What impact is digital having in your sector?
Technology may have a strong impact on the insurance offer, even if today the market offers very rare examples of concrete use.
Digitization of works of art, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence systems and Big Data will be able to support the processes of estimating and assessing, forecasting and underwriting risks, rather than managing document flows, making it easier and more efficient what is now managed with still “traditional” processes.
5. What would you suggest to a young person who wants to pursue his profession?
As for all Talent (curiosity) and Application (study).
It is a world where there is a strong information asymmetry and the skills are not cultivated in seconds from an internet search.
My advice is to face this fascinating world by continuing to ask questions, seek insights to understand all points of view!
