Alberto di Stefano was born in Rome in 1964. He studied history of architecture and restoration work, which became his lifelong passion, at the University La Sapienza in Rome. In 1985 he visited Prague for the first time and came back several times in the 1990s while he was studying at the University in Frankfurt. In 1994 he decided to settle in Prague and established the company Itaka Reality specializing in restoration of historical buildings and conversion of the so-called brownfields. Alberto di Stefano decided to follow the traditon of his family company which has been engaged in residential development and restoration of architecture in Rome since the 1920s.
Before 2000, with the help and advice of the Italian artist Eugenio Percossi, who also lives and works in Prague, he started collecting contemporary art. In 2003 both artists initiated the setting up of the Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA which was consequently extended and transformed into Karlín Studios. The aim of the Centre is to present contemporary art and to promote contacts among artists through residential stays.
The collection of Alberto di Stefano and Eugenio Percossi has a representative character with view to the Czech art scene and it also includes a number of works by foreign artists, especially those who exhibited their work within the projects of the Centre for Contemporary Art. The collectors do not focus on any specific type of media, they select works primarily according to their taste not according to the market value. Their collection of art is housed in the reconstructed chateau in Třebešice together with a large number of art installations and site specific work. A large part of the chateau is open to the public and so this private art collection is not isolated. At present a catalogue of the works is under way.
