LONDON.- It’s a chilly day in February when Francesca Polo and Bernadine Brocker Wieder walk  into the Starbucks, across from the British Museum, where they first met 6 years ago.  At the time, Bernadine was working on a proof of concept for a technology company that would connect private collectors of art with museum curators for exhibitions.  Francesca was conducting research for the British Museum’s Prints and Drawings  Department. They had met through an online listing, where Bernadine was looking for  help on a new initiative for the art world.   

“I described how collectors of art had approached me as a gallery manager, lamenting  that they hadn’t lent their piece to the lastest museum exhibition,” says Bernadine, “and  then Francesca’s eyes lit up. She had been researching the whereabouts of a number of privately owned drawings, sometimes this could take several months on end with no  guarantee that collectors would be interested in sharing those works.”   

It felt that there was a lot of wasted energy and resource on both sides that could be  solved by technology. Both museums and collectors were really worried about privacy  and security, but also wanted to be discoverable - to the right people.   

Once the proof of concept went live in February 2013, it was clear that more people  were interested in being part of a network for collectors and curators. “Some museum  professionals signed up straight away, and I will still always think of them fondly. There  were curators who were working at the Whitechapel Gallery, the Wallace Collection,  and several museums in the USA. Those first few curators who understood and were  curious about the problem we were trying to solve, helped us feel like we were on the  right track,” Bernadine reminisces.   

“And then, an editor in the USA wrote an article about us, which changed everything,”  Francesca recollects. Peter Trippi, the editor of ​Fine Art Connoisseur magazine in the  USA, wrote an editorial note praising the new initiative in August 2013, which raised  awareness and helped many American collectors get on board. 

Fast forward to 2019, and the founders now run a growing 10-person operation in  London with representatives around the world from New York to Seoul to Sao Paolo, connecting collectors and museums - and more - all around the world for exhibitions.  Last year, they successfully matched content to over 450 exhibitions, with an overall  value of $1.5bn worth of art, design, science and collectibles. 

“In late 2014, we started helping entire exhibitions go on loan, rather than only  individual works from collectors, which is the more commercial side of the platform,”  explains Bernadine. This exhibition tour platform includes even science or popular  culture exhibitions, and will list the available content along with information about  hiring fees for the content, expected ticket sales, marketing materials, insurance  requirements, and more. “When you’re importing a ready-made show, you need to  know that it fits in the budget of your museum and whether the logistics are feasible.  Vastari Exhibitions is the platform we build to do that.” 

By demystifying the way that exhibitions and collections go on loan, the Vastari team  are helping new players join the market. They now have a network of thousands of  museums (they even published a report when they surveyed 500 of them last year) and  are increasingly working in markets like China, the Middle East and Brazil. 57% of the  exhibitions they are currently promoting for tour are from North America. In terms of  collectors, it is equally as international. 67% of the collectors they work with are based  in Europe (including the UK) and 21% are in North America, and just over 12% in other  parts of the world. 

The founders say it is very strange to be Europeans in London, working with clients all  around the world, while all of the political turmoil is going on. “Our whole team is from  different parts of the world. We travel internationally every month. We only have one  British employee. It feels like we are on a different plane to the discussions about  borders and protectionism - because Vastari is all about sharing content and  exchanging ideas,” says Bernadine. The team is also one of the companies on the Mayor  of London’s International Business Programme, and Francesca joined the Mayor on a  mission to Paris just a few months ago. 

While things are increasingly uncertain internationally, the Vastari founders are still  pushing forward for growth. “We almost quadrupled our business last year, so now we  want to keep growing further.” That means that next year, maybe over 1,000  exhibitions will be facilitated in one way or another by the Vastari technology platform.    

“We found a niche of the market that no one else is paying attention to, and we’re  catering to it specifically,” says Francesca. Bernadine smiles and says, “it’s pretty  surreal, to think that all of this happened thanks to a 8:30 am coffee meeting back in  2012”.