THIS YEAR, THE EDITOR OF OUR MAGAZINE CONVERSED WITH THE FOUNDER AND OWNER OF THE ENGLISH JEWELERY HOUSE MAXIMILIAN-LONDON MAXIM ARTSINOVICH ABOUT ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS, EXTREMELY JEEMEURU JEREMEURI JEEMERU Maxim, tell us how things are now in your Jewelry House.
M. A .: Creating the MaximiliaN-London brand at the turn of the century: in the late 90s - early 2000s, I set myself a very high bar initially. I did not have time to go from the bottom of the jewelry business and climb up for years, as I immediately decided that we would work in the most expensive segment of colored gemstones. And when I started this business, I immediately realized that we should not deal with diamonds, because there are a huge number of diamond manufacturers and it is already difficult to surprise demanding customers in this area. I have always been interested in only colored gems, namely rubies, sapphires, emeralds and colored diamonds. Therefore, from the very beginning I began to focus on the collection of colored stones.
In this business, about 10 of the most important exhibitions take place annually, at which you can conclude contracts with market participants, where you communicate not with end customers, but with real professionals. Designers, owners of jewelry companies come here.
Therefore, participation in these exhibitions is an important component of our business and our lives, and we are always present at them. At such events, for a certain time, each owner of the company forms his own circle of customers, customers, friends or enemies. I also have enough of the latter, they carry what is horrible and, most importantly, it is precisely those who do not even know me personally!
Your company has long established itself as a supplier of emeralds. Why do you prefer these stones?
M. A .: I am a specialist in colored gemstones and, of course, I study the preferences of clients. It's no secret that people from the fraternal republics of the former Soviet Union - Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Dagestan, Kazakhstan - really like emeralds. For the Armenians, in my firm opinion, this is generally the number one gem - perhaps it even has some magical meaning for them or symbolizes something in the ancient Armenian culture. I can say one thing: since 2005, our largest customers buying high-quality, large and expensive Colombian emeralds were mainly representatives of the Armenian diaspora (God grant them more health and money) and all the royal families of the Middle East! Of course, I sell the entire line of colored gemstones, but emeralds in the 70s, when the queens of beauty and charm were Elizabeth Taylor and wife Shah Pahlavi, Grace Kelly and Sophia Loren, and today, in the twenty-first century, in a special fashion. Like the green color itself - for example, Chanel creates green collections, Hermes - green crocodile bags, and Bentley's emerald green is the signature color!
What is an emerald? There is a so-called Mohs table - a table of hardness of stones. The hardness of the diamond from which the diamond is cut is 10, that is, the highest among the stones! Beryl is the mineralogical name of emerald - the hardness is only 7.5. And we always tell the client that if you paid 1 or 2 million dollars for a piece of jewelry, this does not mean that it should be “shockproof”. We receive a huge number of complaints, and not only we - all Jewelry houses. Because clients most often put on earrings in the bathroom, over the sink or over the marble floor, and if the earring falls and falls on the edge of the stone, then it will shatter. In such cases, I have a reasonable question: if you buy a Bugatti Veyron car and try to park it on the sidewalk, after which the hood will simply come off the car, will you make a claim to Bugatti that their car cannot park on curbs, having a ground clearance of 5 centimeters? And who said jewelry should be "shockproof"? The problem is different - most of the sales managers who work in jewelry stores never tell their customers about the features of stones, that stones are very fragile and delicate living creatures, and this is not just an expensive trinket, but evidence of your social status. A luxurious piece of jewelry shows what you have achieved in this life and what you are. These are some symbols in a fierce competitive environment of their own kind! Where is this best manifested? Yes, you go in the evening in the “Cipriani” in Monaco or in the “Villa Romano” in St. Tropez in season or in the “Calla Di Volpe” in Sardinia. Well, there are still places of jewelry power such as St. Barts or Capri, Courchevel, St. Maurice, Miami, New York and, of course, London! In Moscow there is no place to “walk” your treasures, somehow not high, it’s dangerous and it’s not worth it to enrage the already evil people! Therefore, Moscow fashionistas put their stones on light only at closed points and events. But we still owe how far to the "old money", which can be seen at social receptions in New York and London. In Russia, the brand is of great importance, while in the West they realized long ago that only the rarest and highest-quality gems are the most important criterion, and which jeweler designed and created the jewelry is secondary.
You are positioned as a very expensive brand. Have you had plans to lower the price of your jewelry?
M. A .: We are among the ten most expensive jewelry houses in the world, but my prices are determined only by my quality. I do not compromise! And now, when there is a very tough financial crisis in the world, I decided not to slow down the company’s turnover and arranged price dumping.
And what? I am an independent person and I determine my pricing policy myself. I can say one thing: we do not believe in business without profit. After all, our customers rent space in their shopping centers not lower than the cost of maintaining the facilities, and the builders also build houses at a loss, and our oil is produced at a profit of far from 20%, so why did everyone decide that jewelers should to be poor and survive, counting a penny in your pocket? Today there is not a single Jewelry House on Earth who will argue with me for the price. I am a tough and aggressive businessman. Decided - then do it. I'm interested in sales today at all costs. But everything is within reason, of course. We don’t like communicating with customers like "Hey you boy, I will give you money now, I want a 70 percent discount!". We drive such business into the neck, regardless of their social status.
All honestly. Now we have launched our second line of Maximilian Silver Label (stylish but not very expensive silver jewelry) and are trying to repeat the Tiffany business model, while remaining in the high segment of jewelry for wealthy people. Along with this, our Jewelry House creates jewelry for sale in duty-free chains with a retail price of no more than $ 500. And these jewelry is very fashionable and stylish. All the stars of the Russian show business wear our silver line jewelry. But we get orders from rappers from the United States, and from famous Hollywood actors. Soon you will see everything for yourself.
You are still writing your third book. What will she be talking about?
M. A .: The first two books were devoted to stone-carving art. My third book will be about gems, its working titles are either "The Life of Gems" or "Gemstones: History and Legends."
Among other things, it sets out my theory that stones live thousands of human lives. I regard stones as living beings, and I believe that human life, compared to stone life, is just a flash of 50-60 years in length, then the stone changes its owner. People start buying stones when they reach a certain age, condition and status. The buyers of stones are mainly men - after all, women almost never buy jewelry for themselves. A gift to a woman is usually a manifestation of feelings, emotions, love. And, as a rule, jewelry and stones are given by successful men.
Sometimes a stone lives with a person all his adult life, if there is no need to sell it or mortgage it with bankers or money lenders, it is about 40-50 years. A woman actively wears jewelry from 30 to 65 years old, then she is no longer interested and she gives them to daughters and granddaughters. Stones in nature grow 5, 7, 10, 15 million years, they grow gradually - in caves, mountains, at great depths at a certain pressure and high temperatures.
I have always been interested in precisely these four stones - diamond, sapphire, ruby and emerald. And when, and most importantly - why did people realize that they were rare and precious? It was as if someone from above indicated to humanity to turn their attention to precisely these “gems,” as they were called in ancient times. Judging by archaeological excavations, at the time of the pharaohs they already knew what emeralds, rubies and sapphires are. Where are these stones now? Most of them have not disappeared. That is, stones mined in distant antiquity 5 and 10 thousand years ago and found during excavations, for example in the tombs of the pharaohs, have lived and seen thousands of human lives.
Museums got something, but most of the artifacts were stolen over the centuries. All these stones from Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome, which were worn by emperors and to know, one way or another have survived to this day.
This is the basis of my theory! People were killed for these stones, they were stolen, laid, etc. They forced a person to show the most vicious aspects of his nature. Some stones even started wars. Stones are witnesses of both tragic and joyful events in people's lives.
For example, in besieged Leningrad, some exchanged jewelry for food. Therefore, stones not only delight people with their beauty - sometimes they save human lives. I have documentary evidence from the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem that the Nazis sold Jewish families and the most affluent and most educated people from concentration camps to their relatives and simply wealthy people in England and America for carats through the mediation of Swiss bankers, so that stones took away human lives, so and saved them.
In a word, these are quite tangible financial and tangible assets, as well as the most compact ones in terms of capital invested in them. One of the famous bankers once said a catch phrase: "Money loves silence," and I immediately rephrased it in our manner: "Stones love silence."
Our clients are very demanding, they are sensitive to the history of the stone, they are interested in whether anyone had owned the stone before. Therefore, we try not to buy stones at auctions, because in this case we can not prove their historical origin. Mostly our gemstones are cut from first-class raw materials at our New York factory. We can provide the client with photos before and after cutting, as well as the history of the stone. Our customers love pristine gemstones without a previous story, without a "run" through human lives.
Financiers also call them "alternative investments."
M. A .: I am convinced that stones are indeed the best alternative investment. In times of economic crisis, people do not spend money on luxury, on jewelry. On the other hand, life goes on, birthdays, anniversaries and weddings are being managed. It’s just that now the market has become more competitive, jewelers make compromises, they moderate their appetites and give discounts that they would not even have talked about before. The situation in the jewelry business has now reached the bottom, it certainly won’t be any worse, but since the beginning of 2015, the price of stones has increased by 20% - precisely because they provide an excellent opportunity to make alternative investments. Real estate and stocks fall, banks close and lose their licenses ... But you can buy some pink diamond worth $ 15-20 million, put it in your pocket or put it on your finger - and fly anywhere, to the ends of the earth. Therefore, people invest in stones. The crisis is a crisis, but life goes on, businessmen have money and, oddly enough, in difficult times, stone prices rise. We sell now three times more than in 2013-2014, but with a significantly lower margin.
It’s very convenient to store money in stones.
M. A .: Yes, and when a revolution or crisis occurs, not only the poor, but the rich and the rich are fleeing the country in the first place. And these "wealthy refugees" abandon their property, take their jewelry and leave for Geneva, London or Dubai. When you have money in bank accounts, no matter which country you are in, someone sees them anyway. As a rule, this is "Big Brother" or "Uncle Sam" And nobody knows what is in your safe. You bought it for cash. Many, leaving, put on jewelry for 20-30 million dollars, and when they leave the country they are officially officially declared. So it’s really convenient to store money in stones.
Today, alternative investments are becoming very popular, as capital flees from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Algeria, Afghanistan. By the way, in Libya there were several hundred billionaires and multimillionaires. And how many billionaires were in Egypt! Did they take their villas, palaces with fleets and zoos, paintings with them? In the best case, they managed to get to the airport, where a private jet was waiting for them!
The theme of jewelry has been relevant for Arab refugees since the time of the Great Islamic Revolution in Iran in the 70s. Shah Pahlavi at that time was the world's largest collector of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, which saved him in exile. Recall the Romanovs and the collapse of the Russian Empire in general. If a coup took place in the country, and before him you were a great person, for example, president, prime minister, etc., then the time comes for bankers to act. For example, while Saddam Hussein was in power, bankers were friends with him and took billions from him, placing them on all kinds of secret accounts. Also, bankers with pleasure took money from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and from various Latin American and Asian dictators.
In a word, a situation is advantageous for bankers when military conflicts occur in countries and the ruler or dictator dies. Where is his billions of dollars? It is clear where - in Geneva, in Zurich and in England from the USA. They now belong to no one, lie on the secret accounts of the dictator, who is no longer there, and continue to be used by the bank. No dictator stores money in his own country. Therefore, bankers secretly finance military conflicts and coups in order to quickly eliminate dictators. This is a huge, international, gigantic military-state-financial machine for creating conflicts and looting funds previously pumped out of these countries!
Tell me, how can I get to you in order to invest in stones?
M. A .: With my Caribbean passport, I am a citizen of the world. I live a little in Dubai, a little in London and a little in New York, I like to spend summer in Moscow, when it is warm and there are few people in the city. In the summer in Moscow it’s cool to train and prepare for the autumn marathons. By the way, while you are printing this magazine, I will run the New York City Marathon, one of the most difficult city marathons that make up the six world majors. Of course, I am a Russian person both by birth and in spirit. My hometown is Grozny, but I have not been there since the first war. Today, in order to be an international jeweler, it is not necessary to have an American or European passport. On the contrary, I am very pleased that in Russia today there are so many new and creative designers and jewelers.Why not? What Europeans and Chinese can, but we not? Look at how many names: the Beautiful Yana Raskovalova (Yana) from St. Petersburg, Sonya and Katya Gaydamak (Gaydamak), Vladimir Markin (Markin), Elena Voevskaya (Why Not Sky), Yakov Arapov (aka Jacob & Co), Peter Aksenov (Axenoff Jewelery). Tens and hundreds of talented and colorful names! This suggests that "the Russian land has not yet become talented!"
Our business of large stones is a fairly closed business. We work with individuals solely on the recommendations. In addition, several hundred clients are enough for us - we will not be able to physically serve more. Mostly my business is B2B with companies, banks, and investment funds.
However, extraordinary products in which people can profitably invest their money are not only gems. For example, I myself buy collection wine. After all, every year it becomes less and less, because sometimes you can make only 10 thousand bottles of wine a year from one grape harvest.
Alternative investments are stones, jewelry, wine and art. It is impossible to burn out on wine; on real antique art, too. But the paintings need to be bought not modern, but only impressionist, expressionist and Renaissance.
The most profitable alternative investments in this area are Van Gogh, Monet, Modigliani and Gauguin. As a member of the Board of Trustees of the MMM Museum and an experienced collector, I can say that in the next 10 years we will witness transactions under $ 1 billion for one work of art.
Most major transactions in the field of art are free port at the airports of Geneva and Zurich - in the territory where there are no taxes. The Swiss free port is equipped, for example, with repositories for works of art, from where it is absolutely impossible to steal. They are located at the airport as if abroad - the most expensive works of art in the world. Everything that hangs in apartments and houses is, as a rule, exact copies, the originals are stored in free ports.
Now Europe is experiencing a severe economic crisis - there are low salaries, high taxes, the middle class is disappearing. Therefore, Europeans flee from a dying Europe to Asia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bali.
One of the trends of the 21st century is that art and culture from Europe flow to where they have never been before. Previously, they moved to America, now the New World can be called the Gulf countries, China. In a word, now European art is migrating to those countries where the biggest money is willing to pay for it. In the 2000s, the global expansion of the world's great museums began, which over the centuries of their existence have become famous brands and points of tourist attraction!
Including in the Emirates.
M. A .: Yes, and here's what I tell you: I have a hobby - collecting art objects, which is also my business. There is a Friendship Club of the Hermitage, operating in St. Petersburg, London, New York and Israel. My blue dream - with the blessing of Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, who loves Arab countries very much and is an orientalist and Arabist himself - to open a branch of this club in the Middle East, where billionaires and philanthropists, members of the Friends of the Hermitage Club would come from all over the world, and arrange an annual ball for 300-400 guests with the presence of all the royal families of the Middle East - the same ball as we arrange four times a year in St. Petersburg, New York, London and Jerusalem. Today, the Middle East is open to Western European art and is ready to accept it here with open arms.
When it was first announced that a museum was being built in Abu Dhabi, which will be called the Louvre, I had a dream - to open a branch of the Hermitage in Dubai. By the way, Abu Dhabi paid the Louvre for the use of its name 1 billion euros. Under the agreement, the Louvre undertakes to make year-round exhibitions and manage the museum. After all, museums are a gigantic business, which calculates how many millions of visitors were per year, and displays the "average check", as in a restaurant. If the government of the Emirate of Dubai, as a result of our successful negotiations, pays $ 1 million to the Hermitage Endowment Fund for using the largest museum in the world, the Hermitage, this will be a gigantic project for the entire Middle East with a total budget of $ 10-15 billion. These investments will be aimed at acquiring the greatest collections of works of art through auction houses and from private collectors, and the Dubai Hermitage will become not only a museum, but also an international cultural and educational center.
What is the average annual income of the museum?
M. A .: The museum, which has a traffic of 8-10 million tourists a year and an "average check" of $ 50, has an annual income of about $ 500 million. But the museum still needs a big name that you have to buy. Dubai is already famous for the tallest building in the world, the largest aquarium, etc., so I want to build the largest museum in the world here, and it is the Hermitage, because it has huge storage rooms and has something to exhibit, and in Dubai tourists often have nowhere to go . Dubai was able to attract 15 million tourists a year, but mostly they go to shopping centers. There is no world-class museum. This city is one of the five world cities for tourist traffic. And if, for example, Dubai buys a Da Vinci painting for its museum for $ 1 billion, it will immediately appear in all the news and tourist traffic will increase greatly, because people will be drawn to look at it.
And yet, why do you want to open a branch of the Hermitage in Dubai?
M. A .: Now, in the 21st century, there are 10 world leading museums, whose names have become brands, and the Hermitage is one of them. Such museums unite the rich and famous, the so-called philanthropists. It is also written about me on the Internet that I am a philanthropist.
I presented the first collection to the Hermitage in 2011, and the second month ago it was our joint gift with the great Stephen McCurry. My MaximiliaN Art Foundation brought Steve's exhibition to St. Petersburg and persuaded him to donate to the Hermitage all 90 works, the cost of which on the world market is about $ 15 million.
St. Petersburg is my second hometown. While studying at the Admiralty as a cadet, I went to the Hermitage every weekend, studied art, got acquainted with artists. Then I could not even dream of finding myself in the Club of Friends of the Hermitage, as well as of having the opportunity to give this great museum the collection I had collected over 25 years. The works from the collection of contemporary stone-cutting art that I donated were in the Hermitage during the lifetime of the artists themselves, and this collection is included in the permanent exhibition of the museum as a continuation of the traditions of the great Faberge.
What, in your opinion, should be a work of art so that people from all over the world come to Dubai to see it?
M. A .: Stunning. For example, in the Museum of Qatar, a painting by Paul Gauguin "Nafea Faa Ipoipo?" ("When will you marry?"), Bought by the royal family of the country for $ 300 million, and all the people who fly through Qatar in transit, stop there for one day and go to this museum in order to look at the most expensive painting in the world ! So it should be either Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael. In addition, museums are created not only for tourists, but also for schoolchildren and students. And maybe they don’t always understand the paintings, for example Malevich’s Black Square, but art evokes positive emotions in them. Someone after going to the museum will fall in love with art and, for example, may become an art critic. By the way, in our time museums are the most visited places. So I'm sure that the Dubai Hermitage will undoubtedly become popular - both among tourists and local residents. We are currently negotiating its construction with the government of Dubai. After all, Dubai EXPO 2020 is just around the corner.
