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Argentinean, Bob Frassinetti. Art and Antique Dealer who has been collecting art, antiques and collectibles ........ my long awaited Project: the first virtual toy museum in Argentina. I have made this dream come true for a long time now and today it is a reality that I want to share with you. Come, log in and check it. You will find all I could do in my life as a collector: historic data, toys impossible to get, pictures; all you look for about national toys is at the Buenos Aires Toy Museum, www.the-ba-toymuseum.com If you have any questions, if you want information about a particular object or if you simply intend to talk about toys with somebody, get in touch with me and my journalistic team or I will answer you immediately. It would be very useful for us that before leaving our Website, you make some written comment about the good and bad things you saw here, it will help us enlarge this site and improve the quality of our incipient museum. I hope that you enjoy knowing my museum as much as I did in making it. Thanks a lot for your visit, I expect it to be only one more visit among others. Roberto Dario Frassinetti. The Buenos Aires Toy Museum. Argentina. ARGENTINE COLLECTING. SUPPORTING THE NATIONAL CULTURE. In Argentina, it is happening a fact that is not common in the rest of the world, at least it is not in the richest cultural countries where we can find our own country with its innumerable artistic activities and manifestations. Here, the best cultural exhibitions and samples, related to the quality and quantity of works and objects, and even the most famous museums fall back on private funding. Argentine collectors, assemble expositions and museums that quickly become national cultural events, as the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires shows, created by Constantini, where we find plastic works and sculptures by the most renowned artists of the continent and prime exhibitions. On the other hand, the museum samples and the cultural expositions organized by the State are carried out by means of temporary loans of individual collectors or foundations from all over the world, so the public sector depends, in this case, on the private one. Thus, we see how the private contribution in the country is fundamental help to keep the rich history and the cultural present time of Argentina, which is a reason for national prestige in any part of the planet. The lack of state policies in this area and the country almost non-existent budget make it impossible for the Culture Department and the institutions depending on it to be able to purchase works and outstanding objects, that is why they are obliged to ask for constant private contribution or directly the donation by artists with the aim of making an interesting collection of samples. This way we see that mainly in the last 40 years, from the beginning of the Di Tella Institute, private collectors are the ones who lead the cultural activities in the country, in some cases by organizing events, samples, expositions and even museums through which our patrimony is made known and kept, and in other cases by lending their collections for public samples. Toys, cultural expressions of a particular time, are no exception. Today, the presence of the State is absolutely null and thus all activity falls back on the individual collector or private foundations that generally organize samples that help keep our history alive. The Buenos Aires Toy Museum is another manifestation of this national reality and invites whoever is interested in participating in it with objects or information to improve the quality of our permanent sample. MAKING A TOY MUSEUM, A TASK OF EVERYONE. The end of covertibility in Argentina brought about an important possibility of inversions at low cost for those people that want to invest money in the country. This is happening in a particular way in the building branch and in the reconditioning of old structures, where the figures can even be more profitable for those who intend to build in Buenos Aires, taking into account that the growing tourism needs new places not only for recreation but also for accommodation. The increasing cultural activity in the city of Buenos Aires, which is getting the level of the unforgettable 60's again, results in the opening of new cultural centers, thematic bars and other places related to art and culture in general month after month. The new Latin American Art Museum of La Recoleta is a clear example of the benefits that the opening of such spaces can offer, from the cultural and economic viewpoint. The important thing is to know what Buenos Aires needs today, what its people and tourism demand at the moment of entertaining and enjoying. What the city really lacks is a Toy Museum. A museum that succeeds in keeping this part of the cultural and historic patrimony of the country and serving as a permanent exhibition place for children and adults as well, a space where children can see the old toys their parents enjoyed playing with, when neither computers nor Internet existed; and adults can nostalgically remember the pleasure instrument that they liked so much when they were children themselves. On the other hand, it will be soon transformed into an ideal place for the wide range of collectors that are arriving at the country in search of low price pieces. These specific facts convert the museum not only into a possible project but an urgent necessity, besides being a great commercial possibility, both, because of the building of real property at low prices in Buenos Aires, where today every square meter that is built does not exceed 570 pesos and because it assures an everyday visit by a big quantity of people since it would be a wonderful novelty in the city, it would not have any competition, and it is a wanted place not only by Argentine young people and adults but also by collectors. Moreover, the possibility of equipping a thematic bar in its interior and the renting of rooms for other exhibitions would not do more but to revalue the project's idea. Today, Buenos Aires offers , among other things, this huge opportunity, where both the investor and the city itself would greatly benefit. REAL ESTATE During the decade of Carlos Saúl Menem's presidency (1989-1999) and until the economic crisis at the end of the year 2001, Buenos Aires was one of the most expensive cities in the world, the currency equality one peso = one dollar known as "convertibility" made real estate price rise ostensibly equalizing them with the North American currency. For this reason, purchasing properties in Argentina -departments, lands, houses, etc- was an expensive investment comparable with the purchase of real property in the most developed cities in the world. Today, due to the devaluation, real property prices suffered, only during the year 2002, an average drop of 52% of the value they had before this economic catastrophe. This fall was produced in every kind of property, without taking care of the place nor the type. Nowadays, real estate in the most elegant and exclusive zones of the city of Buenos Aires are recovering part of its old value. Only during the first two months of this year, in some neighborhoods of Belgrano, Palermo, Puerto Madero, Recoleta and Caballito Norte a rising of a 15% was observed in the real estate cost, this makes an excellent opportunity mainly for foreigners or for those who wish to acquire properties in the country which have a low inversion cost because of devaluation and they could buy in a moment when prices, although they are rising, they are not so high, therefore in a short time the value of them will be greater. This fact was already considered by a wide range of tourists who have bought properties in such zones during the last months, many of them used the figure of the real estate trust, already known in the developed countries but it is totally new in Argentina. This sort of trust serves the purpose of attracting a fund of investors where all the ones that belong to him have important advantages, apart from the one mentioned above caused by the currency exchange. On the one hand the cost of maintenance that is added to the properties is in pesos, what represents a very small percentage of the total investment, and on the other hand a legal figure that acts as a protector of the investor personal patrimony and defends him from any possible politic-economic risk that can happen in the country. At present, Argentina is again a good place to invest, at least regarding real estate matters. The Buenos Aires Toy Museum can recommend you places where a real estate investment can result more profitable and contact people on your behalf. Bob Frassinetti.