Timeless Appeal

Montblanc's new artistic director, Marco Tomasetta, is creating a sumptuous universe.

- CHE KURRIEN

TO CREATIVITY!" toasts Marco Tomasetta, Montblanc's artistic director, flanked by three excited Chinese celebrities, who are all wearing his exquisite new products. We are at Shanghai's historic Sunke Villa, where Tomasetta's creative vision of a sumptuous old-world library has been manifested into reality. Its walls display traditional Chinese texts as well as calligraphy, and on the lawns outside, an installation of cascading books is suspended in the air-imbuing the space with a sense of mystery and magic.