Mazdak Sanii: Opening the Doors of Contemporary Art

EDITORIAL TEAM | CHARACTER

Mazdak Sanii , now the founder and CEO of Avant Arte , has a biographical path that defies conventional trajectories. Born into a family of Zoroastrian origins, with a father forced to leave Iran in 1979, Mazdak Sanii grew up immersed in music: he played the French horn from childhood until his twenties, attended specialized schools, and cultivated the idea of ​​becoming a poet. The unexpected turning point came with an internship at the Rothschild bank , where he discovered the value of relationships and the ability to listen , beyond mere financial technique . We tell you about an atypical path, from music to finance, all the way to contemporary art.

Boiler Room: A Bridge Between Music Culture and Entrepreneurship

A meeting with Blaise Bellville led him to Boiler Room , an electronic music platform that evolved from a webcam experiment in a London warehouse into a global phenomenon. As COO , Mazdak Sanii helped structure the company, expand its audience ( over 8 million users ), and build a sustainable business model. It was here that his entrepreneurial calling developed: transforming cultural passions into global communities.

Avant Arte: democratizing collecting

In 2015, he founded Avant Arte , with the aim of making art discovery and collecting " radically more accessible ." The platform works with internationally renowned artists —from Ai Weiwei to Julian Schnabel , from Elizabeth Peyton to Jenny Holzer —producing limited editions of prints and sculptures, often in collaboration with museums.

Some numbers: Affordability : editions starting from a few hundred euros, up to works costing 250,000. Global community : over 3 million collectors under 40, spread across more than 100 countries. Cultural impact : millions of dollars raised for institutions such as the Design Museum in London and the National Portrait Gallery .

A new grammar of collecting

Mazdak Sanii thus reaches a diverse audience: young professionals, music and fashion enthusiasts, and established collectors. Many of them feel excluded from traditional galleries; Avant Arte becomes a bridge, a quality gateway that guides them toward collecting original works. The platform's strength lies in its narrative : storytelling campaigns, newsletters, thoughtful packaging, and direct relationships with artists .

Innovation and cultural resistance

In an era marked by the hype of NFTs , Mazdak takes a cautious approach: integrating the digital with the physical, helping digital artists explore sculpture and printmaking . His vision is clear: art must exist between the physical and digital realities , but always with a tangible human and cultural impact .

A young and cosmopolitan leadership

Despite his young age, Mazdak Sanii leads a team of around 90 people between London and Amsterdam , with skills ranging from technology to curation , from artisanal production to digital communication . He embodies a new generation of cultural entrepreneurs: capable of combining humanism and strategy , accessibility and quality , art and global community .

Mazdak Sanii represents one of the most interesting voices in international contemporary art. His mission— to open the doors of art to new generations of collectors —is not just a business venture, but a cultural and political gesture : to restore art's role as a universal, accessible, and vital language.

Living with art and supporting artists are by far the two primary drivers of our collectors' interests.

This sentence by Sanii Avant Arte 's mission : to live with art and support artists as primary values, capable of uniting the public and creators in a shared ecosystem.

Relationships with galleries and discovery of new talents

Contrary to those who might see it as a competitor, Avant Arte positions itself as an ally of galleries . Many artists have established relationships with gallerists, and Mazdak Sanii emphasizes the need to align priorities and collaborations. Collectors who begin with Avant Arte are often introduced to galleries, becoming supporters of their programs and expanding the ecosystem. At the same time, the platform is dedicated to discovering new talent : Anna Weyant , Antonia Showering , and Danielle McKinney are some of the names that have emerged thanks to this focus. With a large and active community, Avant Arte also offers visibility to artists who are not commercially involved, strengthening the cultural fabric.

NFTs and the bridge between physical and digital

Sanii approached the " NFT rush " cautiously. Only in 2022 Avant Arte propose projects that integrated the digital and physical, helping digital artists explore sculpture and print, and vice versa. His vision was and remains clear: culture will exist between the physical and digital realities , and art must represent both dimensions.

A cosmopolitan team

Avant Arte employs around 90 people between London and Amsterdam : product managers, designers, engineers, printers, curators, creatives, and storytellers . This blend of art and technology allows for the creation of works in bronze, Carrara marble, or silkscreen , always with a focus on quality and the connection between artists and audiences.

The role of Mazdak Sanii

The founder alternates his time between artists, museums, and curators , as well as strategically guiding the team. He defines himself as both " inside and outside " the company: both a participant and an observer, committed to building a project that still has much to achieve.

Resilience during the pandemic

The health crisis has severely tested Avant Arte , which is founded on physical works . With workshops and producers closed, Sanii has mapped quality artisans and studios around the world, creating a network that now represents added value for artists. The pandemic, from an obstacle, has become an opportunity for consolidation.

Beyond Avant Art

While dedicating himself entirely to his company, Mazdak Sanii sits on the boards of the London Contemporary Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra , where he played the French horn as a teenager. Among his fondest memories: performing Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Royal Albert Hall , conducted by Simon Rattle .

A new paradigm of collecting 

It's not just a matter of numbers or editions sold: what emerges from Avant Arte's reports is the birth of a new grammar of collecting . Young, global, digital, the new collectors no longer move according to the rules of prestige or accumulation , but according to a different impulse: living with art and supporting artists . This is the dual engine that Mazdak Sanii identifies as essential, and which transforms the act of purchasing into a form of cultural participation.

Their identity is transversal: they don't define themselves simply as " collectors ," but as omnivorous consumers of culture , capable of moving from music to fashion , from social media to museum galleries . In this sense, Avant Arte becomes a bridge, a place of mediation between the intimate dimension of ownership and the public dimension of institutional support . It's not about replacing galleries, but about broadening the scope , introducing new audiences and new energies into an ecosystem that was in danger of closing in on itself.

Mazdak Sanii insists on one point: trust . Trust in institutions, which must learn to better communicate the value of donations; trust in artists, who find in Avant Arte an ally capable of multiplying their visibility ; trust in young collectors , who despite their inexperience demonstrate surprising generosity. It is a contemporary patronage , made of transparency, storytelling, and digital community , which opposes the exclusive logic of the traditional market.

In this scenario, art is no longer a privilege , but a shared experience . And the figure of Mazdak Sanii , with his biography intertwining music, finance, and cultural entrepreneurship , becomes emblematic of a time in which the barriers between languages ​​dissolve and access becomes the true key word.

Mazdak Sanii embodies a new generation of cultural entrepreneurs: young, cosmopolitan, capable of combining humanism and strategy , art and technology , accessibility and quality . With Avant Arte, he has built a bridge between artists and global audiences, demonstrating that collecting can be inclusive, narrative, and sustainable.

Collector Report 2025 – Avant Arte

🎧 Audio insights and interviews

Podcast on ArtTactic – Mazdak Sanii and Avant Arte