I am in Ithaca! It seems absurd, but here I am. I think of the friends with whom I believe the Odyssey is the most beautiful book in the world.” In September 1927, Carles Riba writes euphorically to Josep Maria de Sagarra while visiting Greece. The patronage of the Fundació Bernat Metge by Francesc Cambó allows the Hellenist to travel through the landscapes of the authors he has translated. Like this last month, when La Casa dels Clàssics of the foundation presented Odissea, the recent translation into Catalan by Pau Sabaté.

In 1973, the advertiser Lluís Bassat was walking down Consell de Cent street when, at the height of the Sala Adrià, which was run by Francesc Mestre, an exhibition by Serra de Rivera caught his attention. Inside awaited Bañista, an enigmatic painting (the naked figure of a woman in a flooded room who sinks an arm into the water that reaches halfway up her leg) that not only stole his heart but changed his life. That afternoon he not only left with the canvas under his arm but also with 35% ownership of the gallery (he later convinced seven friends to acquire another 35%), and until 1980, when it closed its doors, they organized more than eighty exhibitions. “There I began to get to know the artists; and with my wife, Carmen, we bought one or two works from each of them. And so, almost unintentionally, we built a collection that today has more than 3,000 works.”