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Castelli himself feels that the promotion of his artists in Europe is his greatest financial drain.  "It is actually what I pride myself on most of all as a dealer - that I pioneered the internationalization of my painters.  It is something I tried to get Janis to do fifteen years ago.  You see, I make nothing on the paintings European galleries sell.  There is no splitting of commissions.  Yet I feel it is absolutely essential for the future of the painters themselves, and American art, that they be promoted in Europe."  Was there something more there, something about proving himself to old, aristocratic Europe, as one friend has suggested? "Who knows all one's motivations?  But I really don't think that is the case.  It is simply that American art deserves to be known in Europe, and when it is accepted there, as it so enthusiastically is now, it becomes even more acceptable to American collectors, too."

His money is also spent running a miniature museum.  whatever you want, Castelli has: photographs; bibliographic information; files - unmatched, it is said, by any other gallery - that show the whereabouts of any work ever done by one of his artists, who bought it and where it was exhibited.  This is part of his commitment to art, but also part of his obvious helpfulness; he likes to be of help to people.  Artist Jim Dine remembers visiting New York when he was a college student without money, and getting the attention from Castelli that a collector could expect.  "Leo would go back into the storerooms and dig out Johns he thought I might be interested in."  Over the years, Castelli has also shown this eagerness and lack of snobbishness to many young people who have eventually turned up in positions of importance with museums.  Some see this as long-range design, but obviously it is a question of personal style.

The gallery, despite the palazzo-like elegance of red carpets and white marble, is one of the most relaxed in town.  For a man so full of neatness, order and tact, Castelli runs his gallery in an extremely off-hand manner.  "Things happen," he says.  "The less planning the better.  IF the floors need waxing during the day, the waxer comes in.  everything is public.  I hang my shows on a Friday, during the day; anybody can walk in.  And so far as formal openings go, they're out of the question.  THat is why I started the Saturday openings.  There is no crowd, no fanciness.  If the artist wants to be there, he is, and people may come and go all day long.  It is not an event.

"You can't do anything to sell paintings," says Castelli.  Even with his enthusiasm, his reputation? He shook his head.  "Only a prolonged ground swell of interest and excitement - usually started by other painters - can make a man's work attractive to collectors and museums."  He paused.  "Of course, I mean this for my kind of dealer, my kind of painter.  A good salesman is very effective in one of those store-from galleries with the fake Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the window.  But what can he do to sell a Johns for $15,000?"

By his kind of dealer, Castelli also means one who lives exclusively by the painters he shows.  The majority of galleries do not.  Many are run by rich people who do not need to make money.  (There is actually a [[category?]] called the menopause galleries, backed by wealthy women of a certain age who wish to find some worthy and interesting cultural pursuit.)  Other galleries make their money from the resale of blue chips - the modern masters - but this requires large sums of capital, which Castelli does not have.

"Even if I had that kind of money, I do not have that kind of mind," he says.  "I'm committed to my painters.  I couldn't divide myself buying European paintings for resale because I'm not really a businessman.  I like to think of myself as a man devoted to an idealistic endeavor out of which I happen to make my living."

A vaguely Messianic note comes into his voice, a certain distant gaze into his expression - as if he were trying to make out his name on some unwritten history book.  "This is my pleasure, my task: to help bring to the world what I consider the best and most relevant art
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