Valeria Napoleone's walls echo her passion for collecting art by women artists

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Farah Nayeri

Valeria Napoleone at her home in London with a 2007 work by Nicole Eisenman, left, and a 1998 painting by Margherita Manzelli. Credit Tom Jamieson for The New York Times

LONDON—In many of the world’s major museums, art by women can be hard to find. At the London home of Valeria Napoleone, that’s all there is. The Italian collector and philanthropist has made buying and backing female artists her central mission. A graduate of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (where she studied art gallery administration), she moved to London from New York with her husband, Gregorio Napoleone, a financier, in 1998. The Kensington townhouse that they share with their three teenage children is filled with bold artwork by women. Overall, her collection now includes some 350 pieces. [More]