Beniamino Levi, President of the Dalí Universe, is a recognised world expert in the field of Modern Art. His seventy plus years in the art business means his expertise spans a wide range of artistic knowledge, from Impressionism through modern times.
Mr. Levi is a collector-connoisseur whose interest in fine and decorative art was encouraged from an early age, his grandfather was an antiques dealer from San Remo.
Based in the bustling Milan of the 1960s and 70s, Mr. Levi managed the prestigious ‘Galleria Levi’ art gallery on Via Montenapoleone. He sought to bring International Modern Art to Italian collectors and spread a deeper awareness of the modern art movements amongst the Italian public. Quite fortuitously Beniamino Levi came into contact with the renowned Milanese art critic Franco Passoni at a bridge tournament. It was the great Passoni who sowed the seed in the mind of the ambitious Levi that he must open a modern art gallery and champion modernism; Passoni recognised Levi’s talent as a connoisseur. Levi opened his gallery in 1956, when he was just twenty eight years old. Levi ran the gallery between 1956 and 1978. He met many famous names in the art world and had dealings with them, including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and the Italian Lucio Fontana.
Beniamino Levi exhibitions and publications
In the 1960s, Mr Levi held a Surrealist exhibition at his gallery and was introduced to Dalí. He frequently travelled to see Dalí at his many residences in Paris, New York and his home in Spain. Fascinated by some early Dalí sculptures he had found and bought from a Paris gallery, Mr Levi encouraged the Surrealist master to once more express his artistic vision in sculptural form, commissioning Dalí to create a series of bronzes based on the artist’s most famous Surrealist images.
Mr Levi worked closely with Dalí on this bronze sculpture project and is known worldwide as a leading Dalí expert on the Dalí Bronzes. He has lectured and written often on the subject, and has published a definitive book on the Dalí Sculpture Collection ‘Dalí in the Third Dimension’, with the Italian publishing house Allemandi.
It is as a result of those early meetings with Dali during the 1960s that Levi came to be a publisher of Dalí sculptural editions, and he began to build the Dalí Collection which today, over 50 years later has grown into the immense collection of artworks managed by the Dalí Universe.
The Dalí Universe collection of artworks has been continually evolving over the past 40 years. As well as amassing this important collection of artworks, unique in nature, Mr. Levi has curated over 100 critically and publicly acclaimed exhibitions worldwide, attracting over 12 million visitors during the last three decades. Mr. Levi is a world recognised Modern Art expert, whose opinion and guidance is sought by collectors, museums and fine art galleries.
Beniamino Levi, Art Curator \ Art Dealer
Mr Levi is a rare combination of a museum curator and a major fine art dealer. He has successfully developed both roles over many years. The challenge is to track down masterpieces and then successfully purchase them at a fair price in today’s competitive market.
Mr Beniamino Levi is a curator and an expert in Modern Art. He is a connoisseur-collector who can evaluate, appreciate and analyse artworks. He also knows how to exhibit and maintain collections in a scholarly and interesting fashion…Of course he has a unique advantage: he was there when it all happened.
