Where are you from originally?

Where are you from originally?
I grew up in France. I’m French-American - that means I have a very American name and a very French way of thinking about things. I moved from Paris to New York two years ago. It’s the center of the art world now. I guess I did the exact opposite of what Gertrude Stein did when she emigrated from the United States to Paris. How did the idea come about? Well, when I moved to New York I was working for a big technology company—called Google. I was fascinated by how technology can make incredible things happen. A lot of this has been about opening new possibilities, new markets, and democratizing access to certain things. I also believe technology has the power to create better intimate gatherings of people, that are not out in the open and extremely public and extremely big. They could actually be very small and intimate if you use technology in the right way. And that’s exactly what the art world needs—intimate events where you can learn about an artist from an expert in the company of amazing people. Typically if you walk into a gallery today, the experience you get is a leaflet at the entrance. Most people will stay 10 to 15 minutes at a gallery opening. So we wanted to create—and we created, I think—the best art collecting experience which exists today. And that’s the Salon.
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