THE NEW YORK TIMESBy Raphael Minder
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Roberto Polo standing amid “Red Roosenary” (2008) by Maria Roosen, at the Center for Modern and Contemporary Art of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo, Spain, on Jan. 18. The museum shows pieces from Polo’s personal collection. Maria Roosen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/via Pictoright Amsterdam; Gianfranco Tripodo for The New York Times |
CUENCA, Spain — He was once described by Vanity Fair as “a Gatsby for the Reagan era,” but, until recently, life has been quieter for the Cuban-American art collector Roberto Polo.
Polo, a financier whose roller-coaster career included a major art fraud scandal that landed him in prison, has recently resurfaced in central Spain, where last month he defied the coronavirus pandemic to inaugurate a museum in the medieval hilltop city of Cuenca that is devoted to his collection. His first art space opened in 2019, in Toledo, a city that once hosted the Spanish court of the Holy Roman Empire. For Polo, the two museums, collectively known as the Roberto Polo Collection: Center for Modern and Contemporary Art of Castilla-La Mancha, are a chance to establish a legacy and draw a line under his checkered past. [
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