Am in Art

Cutting-edge contemporary art from India and the subcontinent is juxtaposed with classic French furniture in the grand London apartment of Amin Jaffer, International Director of Asian Art at Christie’s.

- Malvika Singh

Much like the city he now calls home, Amin Jaffer is the product of a convergence of rich and diverse cultural influences. Born in Kigali, Rwanda, to a family of Indian origin, London-based Amin has lived in Africa, North America, and Europe, absorbing the art and cultural influences of each continent. He evinced an early interest in art, and recalls fondly a visit to the Louvre at age six, with his mother, where he took a photograph of The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault. Clearly, even as a wide-eyed, dimpled six-year-old, he had a refined eye for beauty.

It is superbly easy to conjure up the image of a young Amin, holding his mother’s hand and earnestly evaluating the treasures of one of the world’s greatest art galleries. It is, after all, what he does even today as the International Director of Asian Art at Christie’s in London. His canvas may have broadened to include writing books, curating exhibitions, and cultivating and nurturing collectors, but his earnest enthusiasm for all that is beautiful remains and you can’t help but be a little affected by it.

CAPITAL GAINS

The light casts long shadows on the mansion flat where Amin lives. This quiet street in the heart of London was once the grand estate of the Earl of Shaftesbury. Amin, an 18th-century person in his tastes, had always wanted to live in a 19th-century London mansion flat. These were London’s first apartments, built laterally, with all the rooms at one level. Spacious and airy, with a minimum of four bedrooms—all connected by long, broad corridors—they allowed for light to stream in through tall, French bay windows in the large public rooms.