The Archive was established in 2021 to enhance a unique collection in the world. In October 2021, the Balenciaga. The glamorous 1950s Archive was established. Curated by Marina Pizziolo and Romano Ravasio, it deals with the study and enhancement of the collection of Cristóbal Balenciaga drawings owned by designer Lorenzo Riva.
The collection consists of almost 10,000 drawings from the Maison Balenciaga, executed mainly in the 1950s by Cristóbal Balenciaga and his collaborators. The collection also contains very rare drawings from the 1940s and personal notes by the couturier. The drawings became Lorenzo Riva’s property in 1982, when they were delivered to him by the Maison Balenciaga, of which he had been artistic director for two years.
A successful Archive. In May 2022 the Archive curates the exhibition of autograph drawings by Balenciaga drawn from the collection, at the Sozzani Foundation in Milan.
With important international partners such as Cointelegraph and Crypto.com, in July 2022 Art Consulting launches the NFT drop “Cristóbal Balenciaga: To the Moon”, the NFTs are inspired by the drawings in the collection and achieve notable success.
The collection acquired by the Balenciaga Museum. In January 2023, a corpus of over 8,000 drawings was acquired by the Basque government to be exhibited at the Balenciaga Museum, in Getaria, the couturier‘s birthplace: an important result due to Art Consulting’s mediation. From 30 April to 21 May 2023, at the Balenciaga Museum, the exhibition “Sketches from the House of Balenciaga 1943-1964. Riva Collection” took place.
Lorenzo Riva passed away a few months later, on 16 December 2023, leaving the rest of the collection to his partner Luigi Valietti.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquires 700 drawings. In February 2025, a selection of 700 drawings from the collection was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, further consolidating at an international level the historical and artistic value of this exceptional archive and once again the curatorial capabilities of Marina Pizziolo and Romano Ravasio, of Art Consulting.
For information write to archivi@artconsulting.net