About the Collection

About the collector

Gábor Kovács

banker, art collector, philanthropist and founder of KOGART.

Having studied at the Moscow State Institution for International Relations (MGIMO) between 1975 and 1980, he started his career at the Hungarian National Bank. He was the first managing director of Citibank Budapest from 1985, before becoming the vice-president of Citibank London. Back in Hungary by 1991, he founded Bankár Holding Plc., which he now heads as president and CEO. It was at this time that he began to collect works by, as well as to support, Hungarian artists. His collection spans the history of Hungarian painting from the early 18th to the mid-20th century.

Truly significant collections of considerable aesthetic value can only be assembled by people who have a sensitive eye and a cultured, sure sense of judgement, in addition to the desire to acquire and the necessary financial resources. Just as a collector may speak about his treasures, a collection may also reveal a lot about its owner.

Fertőszögi Péter

What do you collect? Why do you collect?
You collect experiences, feelings, knowledge, friends, possessions—innumerable tangible things and ones that only the spirit can sense. This collection is what constitutes your life. This is what you try to arrange, line up, classify, and transform in your soul, so that you can build your own individual existence, the reason for this time on Earth. If this is how you look at human life, then everyone is in truth a collector. We collect spiritual and material supplies.