The website gives centre stage to the artwork, with a very visual design for experts and the general public alike.

• The new website is launched as part of the bank’s action plan to promote the digitalisation of its products and services, which now extend into the field of knowledge and culture.

• The new art collection includes a significant number of works from the most representative artists of the golden age of Catalan painting, and it is now expanded further with a set of 68 perfectly preserved gold coins.

Creand has updated and expanded its art collection website (www.creand.com), as part of its digitalisation strategy for its products and services that it has been promoting for a number of years. This drive has resulted in Creand recently being named the Best Digital Bank in Andorra by Global Banking & Finance Review.

The new website is characterised by a modern design and adaptive content, intended to optimise the user experience. The site shows the five categories of pieces that make up the Creand collection: paintings, sculptures, drawings, Catalan clocks and ancient coins.

The new webpage gives centre stage to the large collection of works by the most representative artists of the golden age of Catalan painting from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the so-called artists of modernity. Such names include Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, Isidre Nonell, Hermen Anglada Camarasa and Joaquim Mir.

This private and non-profit art collection, created in 1989, has been expanded with a never-before-seen collection of 68 ancient gold coins, dating from the 4th century BC to the 7th century AD. Catalan clocks from the 18th century also occupy a prominent space on the website, alongside the predella depicting The Passion of Christ and one of the central panels Apparition at Mount Gargan– from the late Gothic retable from Sant Miquel de Prats. These pieces date from the 16th century and they have recently been attributed to Miquel Ramells as the painter, and Guy Borgonyó as the gilder.

“Creand has always been a pioneer in terms of the digitalisation of its products and services, but we also want to be frontrunners in the promotion of knowledge and culture. Responsibility and commitment towards society are an essential part of Creand. This new website makes available to the public (expert or otherwise) an artistic legacy in the form of a virtual museum, and we are particularly pleased with it”, explained Joan R. Mas, director of Corporate Communications, Marketing and Client Digital Transformation at Creand.

Ancient coins

The ancient gold coins that can be seen for the first time on the art collection’s new website include a small selection of Greek coins (from Syracuse and Macedonia to Alexandria), aurei from the Roman Empire, which make up a large part of the collection, several Byzantine solidi and a number of Visigothic coins.

In terms of provenance, the coins are known to have been catalogued in the private collection of Dr Feori Pipito and they were auctioned after his death. The artistic perfection and craftsmanship of the engraving and design of the coins make them remarkable sample of pieces from antiquity.

Because of their shape, materials and characteristics, the ancient coins provide important historical and geographical data, as well as useful information for dating the pieces.

The obverse, the front of the coin, carries a depiction of the head of the emperor or an emblem of the authority issuing the coin who was in power at the time. On the reverse, the back of the coin, the iconography shows a more symbolic image associated with the city, depictions of the most common gods, or a political or religious act, normally alongside the value of the coin.

The symbolic and iconographic images depicted allude to events and propaganda campaigns led by the emperor. These messages were intended for the whole population of the empire, and they allow us to better understand the politics of the Roman era. The custom of depicting the effigy of the emperor surrounded by the name and titles on the obverse of imperial Roman coins was a practice inherited from Greek coins.