It’s taken two years to curate and commission and $5-million to buy the art aboard Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ newest ship, Seven Seas Splendor. The 300-piece collection from artists around the world will debut when the ship enters service in February, 2020.
“Artwork featured on Seven Seas Splendor is one of the most discerningly curated collections of museum quality twentieth and twenty-first century art on the seas,” said Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., who personally commissioned artwork for the ship.
“We created a contemporary fine art collection that transforms each space with thoughtfulness, color and inspired creativity to perfect the ambience of luxury. This is truly a cohesive collection our guests will appreciate, with each piece impeccably displayed in public areas and in guest suites throughout this magnificent ship.”
The collection includes two works by Pablo Picasso, one, Le Taureau Noir on display in Prime 7 steak house Notre Dame de Vie, in the Regent Suite. Also on display in Prime 7 as well as the atrium are oil on canvas works by Eduardo Arranz-Bravo and Joan Miró’s The Bullfighter Move. Both artists’ works were first shown at the Sala Gaspar Gallery in 1969.
Another installation that will become an iconic sculpture aboard Seven Seas Splendor is the dramatic mythical dragon swirling through the large space in front of Pacific Rim, the ship’s pan-Asian restaurant. Holding a supernatural pearl, the cast bronze dragon is an embodiment of good luck in Asian culture. Guests walk through the winding, life-size dragon to enter Pacific Rim.
Dramatic chandeliers include a Lasvit Glass art fixture featuring five rings with 358 clear Bohemian crystal hand-blown glass rods that took five craftsmen three weeks to install. In total, there are 216 exquisitely designed crystal chandeliers in restaurants, lounges and in other public spaces on Seven Seas Splendor, with another 119 crystal chandeliers inside the and 218 chandeliers illuminating the ship’s corridors.
The all-suite, all-balcony Seven Seas Splendor will also feature more than 46,000 square-feet –over an acre–of Italian marble. The 375 suites include nearly 52,000 square-feet of balcony space – among the largest at sea.
