Nataliia Mezhenska, CEO of OTP Capital
Imagine an ordinary evening at a museum. You look at the exhibits, notice the famous masterpieces and lesser-known ones, so not lesser charming. You take photos of the most touching canvases, post them on social networks, collecting “X” likes and comments. In addition, filled with a bohemian atmosphere, you seem ready to leave the museum and return to the usual urban landscape of your city. However, everything changed by stroke of luck.
How the idea came up
The “stroke of luck” was our conversation with Olena Zhyvkova, the curator of the collection of European paintings, Deputy Director for Research at the Museum of Bohdan and Barbarian Khanenko. After talking about the lost treasures of the Museum, we moved on to those treasures that have not yet been lost, but are hardly staying on. Hundreds and thousands of paintings among which there are those that have world fame and name will die in storage due to their poor condition. They will unlikely ever see the world except if being restored.
“If being restored” – the words stuck in my head so much that the next day in the office, apart from work itself, we continued talking about it. On my way back in the car from the meeting, the idea to create the first artistic crowdfunding platform in Ukraine came up. After all, one canvas is a drop in the ocean. It is much more useful to make it a system.
Our so called in a fashion way big idea, was to mark Ukraine on the world art map and thus make people know about our museums, so that they would even come for them. Speaking of my personal opinion about this project, I wanted not only my children, but also grandchildren and great-grandchildren to be able to see those paintings.
Step by Step
It is said, that all ideas are already aired, just someone pick them first and start implementing. In our case, that was it – such an artistic patronage and assistance in the restoration immediately “touched”” our future partners. They were the Banza IT Company, headed by my close friend Viktoriia Omelchenko, who immediately set about developing the platform with her team.
We called the project PinUart, encrypting the slogan of our campaign – “Pin Ukraine on world’s art map” – “Mark Ukraine on the world art map”. The Khanenko Museum offered us the first-to-be exhibit for restoration. It was A Mediterranean Harbor Scene With Merchants Loading A Caravan by the early Flemish Jan Batiste Van Der Meyren, dating from 1736/1740. Van Der Meyren’s paintings are stored in many famous museums around the world. They are in the Prado in Madrid, in the Old Pinakothek in Munich, in the Palazzo Corsini in Rome and in the art museums of Stockholm and Brussels. Today, the Harbor With a Caravan is being kept covered in dust and expelled. We hope that restoration will turn it into a diamond framed by the permanent exhibition of the Khanenko Museum.
Ars longa, vita brevis est (Life is short, art is eternal) as the great Hippocrates said. It might be that idea of restoring the painting was to the liking of many, but the first donations started at the beginning of the campaign. Our call for the Christmas and New Year holidays to contribute to the benefit of art instead of partner gifts, did play its part, too. Well, in a few months of fundraising we raised the necessary amount, and therefore, everyone will be able to see the “Mediterranean Harbor” in the open exhibition of the Museum.
Return on artistic investment
I was asked questions by so many: “So, when to wait for revenue? And why do you need it? What is the OTP Capital, and what are the museums and galleries?” Never and forever, – my answer was.
None of us will ever have any income, profit or reward which was not a goal initially. We are working on the project with the same inspiration-driven fellows, apart from our work, in our spare time. Forever – because from the beginning, from the moment the idea was still unclear, as unclear was the strategy itself – from that very moment we felt that we had already rewarded. This is an opportunity for us to get inspiration by a masterpiece, to contemplate, “sighing” from the beauty of lines and colors, but also to become an artist ourselves and, as loud as it may sound, but yes, a cultural patron.
When will it pay off? It has already paid off for us, despite that was only the first canvas. We express our gratitude to the “Oxford Medical” clinic chain, the insurance company “UNICA Life”, our partners and like-minded people from the Banza IT Company and everyone who invested their money in the eternal. To be continued.
