Iconic fashion designer and art collector Valentino Garavani died on Monday at the age of 93.
Valentino Garavani was born in a small town near Milan, Italy, in 1932. He moved to France to learn the trade of fashion design. He returned to Italy in 1959 and founded his own brand at the age of 26. He soon made a name for himself – first in Italy and then across the world – for his elegant dresses.
Nicknamed “the last emperor of fashion”, Valentino’s gowns were adorned by the likes of Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, and Diana, Princess of Wales. He organized his last fashion show in 2007 and retired the next year. Garavani was known for making royal grace accessible to people from all walks of life and creating timeless designs untouched by current trends.
Aside from being an icon of fashion, Valentino Garavani was also an avid art collector. Along with his romantic-turned-business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, he began collecting blue-chip art in the 1960s. In 2023, Garavani sold El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983) by Jean-Michel Basquiat at Christie’s for $67 million, much higher than the $45 million estimate. In 2021, Giammetti auctioned another Basquiat, In This Case (1983), for a whopping $93 million, almost double its estimate.
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Reportedly, the New York apartment of Garavani housed works from the likes of Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, and Roy Lichtenstein. Last year, the Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti Foundation opened PM23, an art gallery in Rome. The second show at the gallery had opened only last week.
