"I think all collectors, regardless of their background, have the same highly addictive behavior gene," asserts Christian Levett. For the U.K.-born arts patron, the craving started as a child, beginning with coins and medallions. It was in his mid-20s that this love of history, fostered by his parents’ avid museum patronage, bloomed into an art collection.
While working in investment banking in Paris, Levett discovered the intoxicating world of antiquities, putting the earnings of his early successes toward ancient artifacts. Many of them came to be housed in his vacation home in the South of France. Near Cannes, the house in the medieval, alpine village Mougins proved the perfect place for his assortment of classical pieces and the ideal location to open the Mougins Museum of Classical Art.
As he has turned his attention to modern works, Levett has continued to be inspired—like generations of artists and patrons before him—by the vibrancy of the French creative scene and the decadence of Mediterranean light. Fascinated now by Surrealism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism, he has centered the continued cultivation of his collection on female artists. Recently, the Mougins Museum of Classical Art closed its doors to make way for the Female Artists of the Mougins Museum, featuring works from Levett’s collection by artsits including Berthe Morisot, Jeanne Hébuterne, and Jacqueline Marval.
— Grace Waichler