Ninety-five years!
Just genetics. I never did sports. I have only worked.
Art dealer?
Yes, in 1956 I opened the Levi gallery on Via Montenapoleone in Milan, running until the 80s.
What kind of art did you exhibit?
Modern and contemporary art: Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Lucio Fontana... And the great Dalí!
Picasso's Hableme.
Great artist. Cunning. Cynical. Woman abuser. Poor talker. Much less intelligent than Dalí.
Tell me about Warhol.
His art is joyous and did well to sell. Other artists remain in the shadows due to social ineptitude.
Tell me about Dalí.
I bought him the rights to serialize his sculptures. He proposed it to me, and it worked: I'm still selling copies.
Did you buy anything else from the teacher?
The rights of two of his signatures, one of them the crowned signature.
Do you have your originals?
I have 29 original sculptures and another twenty of the multiples, that is, authenticated copies.
What is your favorite piece?
A dog with a soft watch melting on its back.
Were they good friends?
We hit it off. How smart she was! He talked to me about astronomy, mythology, genetics, geometry, mathematics... he Illustrated the works of universal literature masters: he read them all! And he wrote wonderfully.
When did you last see each other?
At his house in Portlligat. I brought a contract signed by both of us to remind him that he owed me the piece of the dog. Dalí was already ill, Gala received me...
Was it as tremendous as it is told?
He kept me waiting outside for an hour, under the heat of midday in August.
...
He received me and wanted to see the contract; I gave it to him and he tore it into little pieces in front of me. "It's a photocopy, nothing happens," I told him.
And Dalí, what did he say?
He appeared in a dressing gown with a nurse, recently operated: "Talk to Sabater, who will fix it," he said weakly. I didn't see him again.
And did Sabater fix the matter for you?
All good. Dalí trusted Sabater, whom I saw unzip the maestro and take out his dick to urinate.
What do you value most about Dalí?
The depth of his ideas and his artistic passion: if I asked him to modify a sculpture he would get angry. Dalí did not understand money, it was Gala's thing: in the end he helped me.
Have you enjoyed...
A lot! More than a hundred exhibitions with more than twelve million visitors around the world, for sixty years...
What name is Beniamino?
Benjamin, in Italian. Hebrew, like the surname Levi: Milanese Jewish family.
What did your father do?
He made ladies' stockings. He died when I was a child. My mother raised me. I finished primary school and had to go to work.
What was that Italy like?
Mussolini expelled Jews from public schools. He harassed us, and we ran away.
Where to?
To Switzerland. Walking. By the fields.
And what did he do in Switzerland?
Going hungry, in a refugee camp, separated from my mother and sisters.
When were they able to meet again?
Liberated Italy in 1945, we returned to Milan. I worked in tailoring, furriery... And I got married. And he played bridge.
And so?
My hobby. It would be decisive in my life.
Because it says?
My father-in-law gave me an unoccupied warehouse attached to his jewelry store, in the luxurious Via Montenapoleone in Milan, where we used to play bridge games with a group of friends...
And to play.
One of the players was an art critic. He looked at the store and sentenced: "Set up an art gallery here!" I was encouraged, he listened to him and in 1956 he inaugurated the Levi gallery.
Why do so many Jews work in the art market?
Since the Middle Ages they had been banned from having houses and land: they saved and lent money. When art ceased to be ecclesial and became secular... they invested in works of art.
Where is art going?
I'm going to the Arco fair... and I don't understand anything! Young artists should explain their works to us in a thick essay.
What work of art would you visit in Spain?
El Gernika: Picasso, astute, half had a painting about the death of a bullfighter, he retouched it... and placed it in Paris in the Republic pavilion. And he charged, of course he did.
