estebanana -> RE: 1950 Marcelo Barbero ex. Sanlucar (Nov. 24 2014 0:37:44)
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quote:
One well-to-do Japanese collector (whose name I don't recall and I'm too lazy to look it up) was so enamored with Arcangel's guitars that he built the Museo Arcangel Fernandez in Japan to show off his collection, hold concerts, etc. And it's not just Arcangel's instruments but those of other makers who worked with him as well. In addition to Barbero's son, who worked with him for his entire career, there are guitars made by former Ramirez workers Manuel Caceres and Pedro C. Valbuena who both worked with Arcangel after leaving Ramirez and opening their own shops that are in demand. Caceres is still working and sells a significant portion of his production to the Japanese and Valbuena, who died in 2007, sold most of his output there as well which accounts for the scarcity of his instruments on this side of the pond and even in Spain. I recall seeing a full page color ad from a dealer in the Japanese magazine "Gendai Guitar" just for Valbuena's instruments while many people here and even in Europe know very little about him other than that he stamped his" P.C." initials in some Ramirez guitars way back when. Guitars by Barbero hijo, Caceres and Valbuena sell for very high prices in Japan. I approached a 'pro' guitarist who collects and sells Spanish guitars here in Japan. He was too snotty to talk. There is a great bias here with some people that a guitar has to be made by Spanish blood to be good. During the 1980's and up into the late 90's when Japans economy was strong against most other currency, was the time art and instrument collectors blitzed the international auctions to binrg all manner of art to Japan. Much of it is in bank vaults never to be seen. A lot of it is on display in museums, but they don't centralize these things. A guy who is rich who owns a chain of dept. stores might set up a museum of Tiddley Winks and Croquet balls if he likes to collect them, but they don't have the centrally located kind of donor/ museum patronage such as exists in the US and a few European countries. You have to travel around piece meal to see works by important artists. The great instruments held by the foundations here do make it into the hands of real players, lot's of international concert artists are given loans from these collections. Not just Japanese artists, they loan to artists from other countries. But as far as guitars, there is a difficult road for anyone trying to get past the Spanish bias towards flamenco guitars.
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