alain elkann interviews

LITERATURE AND EDUCATION

Rémi Tessier

Rémi Tessier

THE CHALLENGE OF QUALITY. Rémi Tessier was trained in France as a cabinet maker. Since opening his studio in 1988 he has joined the ranks of the world’s most admired designers for private boats and planes, working globally with the best craftsmen.  You can listen to...

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Kim Jones

Kim Jones

ON THE ROAD WITH DIOR. British menswear designer Kim Jones is a graduate of Central St Martins. He has worked with high profile fashion brands including Dunhill, Louis Vuitton, Mulberry, Alexander McQueen, Hugo Boss, Iceberg, Topman and Uniqlo. In 2018 he joined Dior...

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Shai Baitel

Shai Baitel

CHINA: A SMART, GROWING, SOPHISTICATED AUDIENCE. Shai Baitel is the inaugural artistic director of the Modern Art Museum (MAM) Shanghai. Born in Israel, he graduated from Tel Aviv University with honors, earning a degree in Law and Modern History of the Middle East....

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Virgilio Sacchini

Virgilio Sacchini

CARING FOR THE CARERS. Dr Virgilio Sacchini is a surgeon who specializes in the treatment of breast cancer, with academic experience at Cornell University in New York and University of Milan in Europe.  In all his life he was involved in clinical trials increasing...

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Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer

PAINTING WITH THE POETS. Born in Donaueschingen, Germany, the artist Anselm Kiefer has lived in France since 1992. He lives in Paris and Barjac, near Avignon, where he has created his foundation. He works in Croissy, outside of Paris, where this interview took place....

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Rooshad Shroff

Rooshad Shroff

CONTEMPORARY DESIGN : ANCIENT CRAFT. Rooshad Shroff founded Rooshad Shroff Architecture + Design in Mumbai, India, in 2011, after he had studied at Cornell University and Harvard University Graduate School of Design. As well as the realization of interiors and...

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James Thornton

James Thornton

THE EARTH IS MY CLIENT. James Thornton is the founding CEO of ClientEarth, an environmental charity using the law to create powerful change that protects life on Earth. James launched ClientEarth in 2007, sparking fundamental change in the way environmental...

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Giacomo Cattaneo

Giacomo Cattaneo

A LONG HISTORY OF VINICULTURE. Giacomo Cattaneo Adorno is Genovese by family and grew up in Brazil. He is the current Marquis of Gabiano, whose “Castello di Gabiano” in the Piedmont Region of north-west of Italy has a long and fascinating history. Giacomo Cattaneo and...

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Miquel Barceló

Miquel Barceló

CONTINUOUS TRANSFORMATION. Miquel Barceló is one of Spain's most acclaimed contemporary artists, known for his relief-like mixed-media paintings, expressive bronze sculptures and ceramics. I visited him in his Paris studio before his current London exhibition of...

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Luciano Violante

Luciano Violante

NEW WORLDS. Luciano Violante is President of Fondazione Leonardo Civiltà delle Macchine (The Leonardo Foundation – Machine Civilization) whose goal is to bridge humanistic and industrial cultures. He is a former Italian magistrate, politician and academic. He was a...

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David Puttnam

David Puttnam

A GREAT COMMUNICATOR. David Puttnam is a British film producer, educator, and environmentalist who recently retired as a member of the House of Lords, where he served on the Labour Party benches for 24 years. His many celebrated film productions include Midnight...

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Kerry Kennedy

Kerry Kennedy

FIGHTING FOR DIGNITY. Kerry Kennedy is President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, founded in 1968 after the assassination of her father. She has devoted more than 40 years to the pursuit of equal justice, the promotion and protection of basic rights, and the...

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Laurent Le Bon

Laurent Le Bon

RE-IMAGINING A LANDMARK. Laurent Le Bon is the recently appointed president of the Centre Pompidou, the very important Paris institution focused on modern and contemporary art. He was previously the president of Musée Picasso-Paris.This interview is available to...

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Deborah Swallow

Deborah Swallow

A MISSION TO OPEN UP AND RENOVATE. Deborah Swallow has been Märit Rausing Director of The Courtauld Institute of Art and its Gallery since 2004. A British educator, museum curator and academic, she previously worked at the University of Cambridge and the Victoria and...

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Martin Bethenod

Martin Bethenod

A VERY ECLECTIC PERSON IN THE WORLD OF ART. Martin Bethenod was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection until October 1st, 2021. Director of Palazzo Grassi - Punta della Dogana from 2010 to 2020, he previously held positions...

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Denis Olivennes

Denis Olivennes

IN PRAISE OF PROGRESS. Denis Olivennes is a senior French civil servant, entrepreneur and essayist. Among other things, he was the boss of Canal +, Nouvel Observateur, Europe 1 radio, Elle and Paris Match. Since June 2020, Denis Olivennes has been shareholder and...

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Giordano Bruno Guerri

Giordano Bruno Guerri

GUARDIAN OF THE PATRIMONY OF A SUPERMAN. Giordano Bruno Guerri is an Italian writer, journalist, and historian. He is an important scholar of twentieth-century Italy, in particular of the Fascist period and the relationship between Italians and the Catholic Church. He...

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Yassmin Abdel-Magied

Yassmin Abdel-Magied

FROM ENGINEERING TO ACTIVISM. Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-Australian writer, broadcaster and social advocate. With a background in mechanical engineering she is also a Trustee of The London Library. Her latest book “Listen, Layla” is described by publisher...

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Vuslat Doğan Sabancı

Vuslat Doğan Sabancı

LEARNING TO LISTEN. Vuslat Doğan Sabancı is a former publisher, a business leader and a philanthropist. For more than a decade she has been Chair of the Board of Directors of Hürriyet (‘Liberation’) the most important daily newspaper in Turkey. Her newly formed Vuslat...

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Marco Alverà

Marco Alverà

BETTING ON GREEN HYDROGEN. Marco Alverà is CEO of Snam, one of the world's leading energy infrastructure operators and among Italy's largest listed companies with a market capitalization close to 17 Billion Euros. He is also a visiting professor at Oxford University,...

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Lily Cole

Lily Cole

WHO CARES WINS. Lily Cole is a British fashion model and acted in films including The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus of Terry Gilliam. Her recent book Who Cares Wins features interviews with Sir Paul McCartney, Elon Musk and Extinction Rebellion co-founder Professor...

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Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk

NIGHTS OF PLAGUE. Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish novelist and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University’s School of the Arts in New York. He has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three languages.You can...

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Edith Bruck

Edith Bruck

“Racconta anche per noi!” “Racconta!” “Tell our story!” We repost this interview to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022 Edith Bruck is a Hungarian-born writer who lives in Italy. Her new book “Il pane perduto” (“The Lost Bread”) is one of the candidates...

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Massimo Osanna

Massimo Osanna

THE MAN WHO SAVED POMPEII. For seven years Massimo Osanna was Director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. He is now Director General of all the Italian museums. A professor of archaeology at the University of Naples, he has held many important responsibilities...

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Catherine Ostler

Catherine Ostler

A BIGAMOUS COUNTESS? Author Catherine Ostler has been Editor-in-Chief of Tatler magazine and the Evening Standard magazine; Editor of The Times Weekend; and written for publications including Newsweek, Vogue and the Financial Times. She read English at Oxford...

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Edmund de Waal

Edmund de Waal

A TRAGIC ASSIMILATION. Edmund de Waal is an artist who has exhibited in museums around the world. His bestselling memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes, has won many prizes and has been translated into 29 languages. His new book is Letters to Camondo.You can listen to the...

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Salvatore Settis

Salvatore Settis

CONTEMPORARY ART AND TRADITION. Salvatore Settis is an archaeologist and art historian. The Chairman of the Louvre Museum’s Scientific Council, he has been the director of the Getty Research Institute of Los Angeles and the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. Author of...

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Minouche Shafik

Minouche Shafik

A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT: LESS ABOUT ME. MORE ABOUT WE. Minouche Shafik is an Egyptian-born British-American economist who has been Director of the London School of Economics (LSE) since 2017. Minouche Shafik was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from 2014 to...

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Fabrizio Moretti

Fabrizio Moretti

THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION. Fabrizio Moretti is the founder of Galleria Moretti, located first in Florence and then London and most recently Monaco. The prestigious and philanthropic Moretti gallery is internationally known, particularly for its work with Old Master...

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Philip Mansel

Philip Mansel

TO WRITE A MASTERWORK. Philip Mansel is a British historian of France and the Middle East.  President of the Conseil Scientifique at the Centre de Recherche du Chateau de Versailles, his much praised latest book is King of the World, The Life of Louis XIV.Listen to...

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// FEATURED

Money Must Stay in the Family

The plot of Money Must Stay in the Family, unfolds around the family matriarch’s last will and traces the story of an upper class Jewish family from Turin, the fictional Ottolenghis. The multigenerational saga begins with the flight from Mussolini’s Racial Laws of 1938 and continues with the arrival in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and the dispersion from New York to Rome, Paris, Tuscany, South America, and Jerusalem.

// PUBLICATIONS

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