Adam's FINE ASIAN ART 28th,29th,30th Preview June 2022

14 ERNESTO CARLOS TORNQUIST (1824-1908) Born in Buenos Aires in 1842, Ernesto Carlos Tornquist (1842–1908) was a prominent Argentinian businessman and a cosmopolitan financier considered to be the most significant entrepreneur in Argentina at the end of the 19th centu- ry. Ahead of a diversified business empire, he is known to have played a key role in helping to link Argentina with the trading and financial systems of the first world and founded, amidst other things, the Tornquist Bank, the Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires (today called the Marriott Plaza Hotel) as well as two cities named after his family’s name (Tornquist Parti- do and Tornquist City). A member of a family with roots in Sweden and Germany, he was the son of Jorge Pedro Ernesto Tornquist (1801-1876), the consul of Bremen in Montevideo. In 1874, Ernesto Carlos Tornquist took over the running of his brother-in-law’s company which was now renamed Ernes- to Tornquist y Cia. He then diversified the activities of the company (initially focusing on exporting wool and leather and importing agricultural machinery) to include investment in sugar, cold-storage, railways etc. A person of influence, Ernesto Carlos Tornquist is also known to have played a crucial role in helping to avoid a war between Argentina and Chile in 1902 by managing the British mediation in the border dispute and by strongly opposing the bellicose Foreign Minister Estanislao Zeballos (1854-1923). He also helped to resolve a conflict with Brazil. Through- out the years, he maintained a close friendship with Argentina presidents Julio A. Roca (1843-1914) and Carlos Pellegrini (1846-1906). He once owned an hôtel particulier in Paris where he would spend a few months each year with his family. A testimony of these regular stays in the French capital is a vitrified photograph of his nine childs taken by Mathieu Deroche (1837-?), a French photographer and miniaturist. There, he would visit antique dealers and attend public auctions thereby assem- bling an important collection notably (but not only) of Asian Art. A view of a selection of items from the Tornquist collection ⒸDR