Gabriel Tortella, founder of Tribune des Arts, passed away last night in Spain.
WORLDTEMPUS – 18 avril 2011
Louis Nardin and Elizabeth Doerr
A well-known figure in the French watchmaking press, Gabriel Tortella, founder of “La Tribune des Arts,” died last night of natural causes in Denia, Spain at the age of 71. Born in the Abruzzo region of Italy, he originally came to Geneva to manage the gastronomical entity of CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Tortella's love of fine food was legendary, and at times he used the kitchen of a certain five-star hotel in Geneva to cook dinner for himself and guests.
Gabriel Tortella, founder of Tribune des Arts, passed away last night in Spain © Tribune des arts
An expert in vintage objects, in 1974 together with Osvaldo Patrizzi he created Antiquorum, the world's first auction house specialized in vintage watches and horological instruments. In 1979, he founded another project with journalist Jean-Claude Pittard: the “Tribune des Arts,” a monthly publication focused on watchmaking, painting and current events of the antiquities scene in Geneva and worldwide.
Some of his initiatives in the world of watchmaking will continue to thrive: he created Worldtempus as a visible portal on the Internet for the brands involved in the CIDH (a center for Information and documentation in watchmaking) and other projects.
In 2001, Tortella and Pittard organized the first Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève in association with the city of Geneva. Perhaps the most famous celebration in watchmaking, every year it honors various watches and personalities in the field.
Over the course of these many years, Tortella became closely acquainted with the most relevant figures of the watchmaking industry. His personality, exuberant and full of imagination, was coupled with fine intuition and a subtle sense of relationships, as confirmed by many professionals who have worked with him. Both actor in and chronicler of the horological universe, he was well known for his generosity but also for his frank and sometimes severe opinions. The death of Gabriel Tortella takes place within a period of transition for the Swiss watchmaking community, seeming to signify a changing of the guard.
