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The CollectorArt dealer Anna Maria Rossi on driving through Middle East with her children in the 1970s

The founder of Rossi & Rossi travelled from her home in Italy to her regular booth at the art fair

The former school teacher drove her car and her kids through India, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, picking up a taste for art along the way

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Anna Maria Rossi, Asian art specialist and founder of Rossi & Rossi Gallery, in Wong Chuk Hang, n Hong Kong. Photo: May Tse

Published: 1:30pm, 21 Oct 2019Updated: 1:30pm, 21 Oct 2019

Predictably, the protests in Hong Kong put off a number of Western galleries that were scheduled to debut at this year’s Fine Art Asia fair and the result, as reported, was a much smaller version of the Masterpiece Pavilion than planned.

But mere political unrest could do nothing to disturb the tranquil presence of one octogenarian dealer from Italy, sitting in her booth as usual, and brushing off any suggestion of a long-term impact on the demand for art.

Granted, Anna Maria Rossi didn’t have to put millions of dollars of artwork on a plane as the Masterpiece Pavilion exhibitors from Europe would have had to. After all, Rossi & Rossi, the Asian art specialist she founded in 1985, has its main gallery right here in Wong Chuk Hang.

But the fact that she flew over from her home in Turin to join her Hong Kong-based son, Fabio, at the fair was a welcome antidote to the increasingly hysterical reaction to the turbulence, which has already seen far too many international events cancelled since the protests began in March.

Rossi’s son Fabio (centre) in Afghanistan, 1974. Photo: Anna Maria Rossi

Rossi, born in 1932, tells The Collector that her unflappability was inculcated during the second world war when Turin was bombed by Allied forces. It also gave her the courage, first, to venture into the Himalayan region in the early 1970s, then to become a dealer of Asian artefacts in 1974 and to open her first permanent gallery in London in 1987. (London being picked over Italy for its business environment and its access to the international art market.)