I am an art lover. Have always been, but since I met the man of my life more than 20 years ago my taste has refined. Sleeping with an art historian has an impact. We have come at a stage when we only need the blink of an eye to decide what the two of us like and buy. We are currently having a crush at Ben Sledsens.

We live in Geneva but still have the house in Brussels which is what we call our ‘docking station’, the place which ultimately is our home and where we will grow old together. When moving to Geneva, now more than five years ago, we only moved photography leaving all the other art on the Brussels’ walls. So the walls in Geneva are covered by the official portraits of Boudewijn & Fabiola and artwork from friends with whom I collaborated over the years : Luc Gijbels and Geronimo. Emmanuel and Jasper would give me a print for every series I commissioned. Recently, work from my friend Amy Selwyn has arrived in Brussels and will get a place on the walls in Geneva, once framed by Mertens.

Those who had meetings with me over Teams and Zoom recently may have spotted two little pics behind me : a lady in red and a man half naked. “What is that work behind you ?”, one of my colleagues asked me lately. I had to disclose, as not only she but plenty of others may have made the assumption that my Geneva flat is full of naked, gay pictures. None of that.

Upon one of my first visits to London, perhaps my very first visit, I went to Camden and bought two pictures by Annie Leibovitz, which I have followed ever since. I must have paid no more the five pound sterling for each print, probably not knowing what I was buying.

I recently had some leaks here in the Geneva flat, so will have to remove these two little, London souvenirs. No matter what value they have, Daniel Defoe and Ella Fitzgerald will be back on the Geneva flat walls, perhaps in a new frame.