Arte&Antigüedades: Alberto, how does the idea of a space so different from the rest of the galleries in Buenos Aires come up?

Alberto Aguilar: Since I was young, when I took up the acrylic business and set up my own company, I started to invest in paintings instead of investing in the stock exchange or in estates.  It all began at the age of 21, when I was walking along Cordoba Avenue and I saw an auction flag: “Sucesión Roca, Rufino de Elizalde” legal auctioneer. I have always developed a passion for the great masters of the religious paint. By the end of 60’s and 70’s I had become well known because people knew that whenever an anonymous religious painting was available, it was Aguilar who bought it; in Roldán, in Saráchaga, in Burllich, my passion went on and on until my weekend house and my two apartments were filled up.

Arte&Antigüedades: I now realize that the people who visit this gallery get to know that the person who set up this gallery develops a passion for art works because there is no single space where one look at and does not find a piece of art. How did this occur to you?

Alberto Aguilar: I brought the idea from Europe, when I traveled in 1978, and observed that in the ancient galleries and museums, paintings were hanged from the floor to the ceiling and from wall to wall. This fact gives people the possibility to choose, an idea in which I strongly believe. When I started setting up the gallery, I started to do the same thing: hanging all the paintings from the floor to the ceiling and from wall to wall. They were displayed according to the authors: a Soldi wall, a Berni wall, another one by Quirós, etc.

Arte&Antigüedades: Why did you choose the word “Museum”?

Alberto Aguilar: Because when people got into the gallery, they kept telling me: “This place looks like a museum rather than a gallery”, and I kept hearing it during one or two months until I decided to include the word “Museum” so “Galería-Museo Aguilar” came up.

Arte&Antigüedades: People are used to getting into a gallery and see a Soldi, how do they react when they get here and see so many paintings by the same artist?

Alberto Aguilar: They feel they have more possibilities to choose. There has also been people who have come to the gallery and have left their paintings in consignment, such as Solid’s daughters or Berni’s widow did, and that was how we started enlarging each author’s collection, for the public’s appreciation.
I also have the habit of making someone clean each painting and leave it the same way it looked like when the master painted it.

Arte&Antigüedades: By what you are telling us, it shows that you are an expert in arts, and this must give much confidence to your customers because whenever one buys a painting one needs to have the certainty that the painting is original.

Alberto Aguilar: We guarantee our customers that we are giving them the painting exactly as it was done by the master. Besides, the painting is within a frame that matches with the decoration of a modern house. We also have payment facilities for those people who had never had the opportunity to buy a painting before. I believe there is no better investment than a piece of art. We are here; surrounded by these beauties and we live happily in this gallery; that is why I work all the year long, from Monday to Sunday and even holidays. The gallery is closed only on May 1st and December 25th , for Christmas, and I’m not  tired, really.