Serge Tiroche comes from a family with a long history in art - as collectors, gallery owners, dealers and auction house founders. He has been collecting contemporary art for over 30 years. He obtained an MBA from INSEAD in 1997 and was a Managing Director at Citi Private Bank until 2007, when he left in order to combine his passions for art collecting and investments. His mission has since been to enable a broader community to participate in the art world, by combining passion and investment, and to support emerging artists the world over. His first project was to found ST-ART, Israel's first art incubator project. He went on to invest in the Artist Pension Trust and serve as its global chairman until 2010. In 2011 he co-founded Art Vantage PCC Limited, an Art Fund focused on collecting contemporary art from developing markets, via the Tiroche DeLeon Collection. His most recent venture is Africa First, a private contemporary art collection founded in 2017, and a support platform that includes a residency program as well as a multitude of commercial and philanthropic activities aimed at advancing the careers of emerging artists from Africa and the diaspora.  

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