Q&A – Rami El Nimer

Rami El Nimer is general manager at First National Bank (FNB) and an experienced art collector. He chatted with Executive about how his art collection fed on history and identity, the opportunities and risks associated with banking on art in the Middle East and his plans to build up FNB’s art assets. When did your passion for art begin? My passion for art started at a very early stage when I used to visit my ancestors’ house in Nablus, Palestine. As a young man in 1967 I used to visit my family there. There was a small museum that had our family artifacts, arms, armors and documents. Until the age of 16 or 17, I used to collect small artifacts concerned with the Ottoman Empire — like books or coins. And still today I keep them. Then I went to school in Switzerland where I met a lot of art