A Cultural Heritage Advisor should first and foremost know the family or public history of the heritage but also the cultural significance and values of the people involved and the place where they operate, this ensures effective results in terms of planning and involvement in bringing a successful project to fruition. Often one can find oneself faced with heritage and cultural practices that are too personal, putting projects and reputations at risk. However, by putting heritage and culture at the forefront of critical projects, in a set of sharing, vibrant and sustainable partnerships can be created. Without participation from all, nothing will be achieved.
It must be said that the number of families that choose a Family Office to manage their assets, especially due to generational change, has risen to 219. And it is within these realities that the figure of an Advisor dedicated to cultural assets who has experience in both the cultural and financial fields is increasingly emerging.
The typical day of a Cultural Heritage Advisor can be very varied
Every day can be different, you can start from a specific research, or complete a strategy to valorize an asset to be placed on the market, or have endless meetings, or take a train/plane to reach a client who asks for urgency, or evaluate solutions with individual dealers or Bayer, or represent a client in an auction, or search the archives for documentation useful for a project and finally be emotionally influenced by the Stendhal syndrome. The role is a kind of generic description that covers a wide range of disciplines. At a broader level, however, the job consists of understanding the cultural values of a cultural heritage and then preparing appropriate recommendations to preserve those values. However, it takes time to develop these skills and no one dives in straight away. I started working in the art heritage sector and then expanded to other assets and more than twenty years have passed since then. At the time I was dealing with institutional and financial communication, which is still the basis of my career, and having had this training has helped me a lot to grow in reputation.
Combining financial economic knowledge with culture and art was just destiny
I have been fortunate to meet and learn from several professionals who have worked in different complementary fields, each with different personalities and a wide variety of skills. I have seen that no two people succeed in the same way and those who seem the most wary at first have turned out to be the best partners to do a fantastic job. There is no shortage of difficulties and some have to give in, but having a common goal you can find a common path and if it were not so there would be no point in continuing. After doing this job for a few years, I have learned that I can become quite strict and inflexible when it comes to delivering high quality work. Nowadays the most important thing for me is to know the people I work with and for. Without this knowledge it becomes difficult to understand the reasons for other people's choices in the previous wealth management and even if they do not agree, they still need to be taken up and reformulated in a new and more efficient context than in the past. Some tasks can seem so large and overwhelming that sometimes you just need to drop everything and dedicate yourself completely. There is no shortage of projects and tasks that can really drain your energy. It is important to demonstrate professionalism and trust at all times, even in the most difficult moments to manage, where a lack of rationality or personal conflicts – often unfounded – between clients can prevail.
"I think people would be surprised by how varied the work of a wealth advisor can be and that's part of what makes it difficult to explain in a simple way."
To write heritage reports, you need to develop a certain familiarity with subjects such as the history of all cultural heritage, architecture, photography, heritage law, archaeology, anthropology and study the history of philosophy and the territory. And to all this, you need to add the communication skills that come from experience and the ability to listen.I know people who have been in this industry for a few years and say they are still learning. I have been in it for decades and I know I am still learning. That said, it can be a lot of fun. Most of the work is, first and foremost, understanding the client’s ideas and finding the best solution for the benefit to happen. I would also say that being considerate and kind to others is always important. Unlike other fields, where you never really know whose report you are reading, in the heritage sector everyone eventually meets and while that can be a hindrance, it is also part of what makes the work special.
“It is only in the value of respect that true and indisputable credibility is created”
