The collectors who really matter to the history of art are not necessarily the very richest or even the most acquisitive. They are those who by their example set standards for others, encourage interest in the art they collect and share their treasures with the public. In short, the collectors of greatest importance are those who wield the greatest influence. Martin Bailey presents APOLLO'S list of the 20 most influential collectors today.
What makes a collector influential? Obviously, the really big spenders have a major impact on the market, but the aim of our quest is to delve deeper--to focus on those who have a longer-term impact on the wider world. Influence, in this sense, comes when a collector feels the need to share their enthusiasm with fellow art-lovers. Few, if any, of our Top 20 collectors have consciously sought influence, but it has followed from a combination of connoisseurship and generosity.
All the names on our list (which is presented in alphabetical order) have exhibited their collections. Most have lent works to museum shows and some have arranged exhibitions of them. Most of the collections have also been published (at least in part), often as exhibition catalogues. It is striking that 13 of our collectors have set up (and funded) their own public galleries, for changing displays. There may be an element of vanity involved in sharing a collection, but we all act with a range of motivations.
Choosing half of the names was simple, since their influence was indisputable. After that, it became more difficult to weigh the candidates, so inevitably there is an element of subjectivity in the list. We also aimed for a reasonable balance both of nationalities and collecting fields. It should be stressed that we have focused on mainstream art, since within a narrow speciality it is obviously much easier for an individual to exert a powerful influence. Our list emphasises the growing interest in contemporary art: half the names are collectors in this area. This reflects great public interest, particularly among the younger generation, so it is a field that offers considerable opportunities for collectors to reach out to a wide audience.
Inevitably, all our collectors are wealthy, and indeed seven of them figure in this year's Forbes list of billionaires: Broad, Khalili, Lauder, Pinault, Pinchuk, Thomson and Wurth. Many of the 20 have been generous donors to public galleries; this in itself undoubtedly brings influence, particularly in America, where philanthropy is more widely acknowledged (very major museum donors are normally offered a seat on the board).
As to nationality, seven of our 20 are from north America (six from the United States and one from Canada), a result of the numerous important collectors there; Americans also tend to be more open about sharing their art. Nine are from western Europe, including three from Switzerland, which has an unusually high number of collectors for its population. Four are from newly-emerging art markets: Mexico, Ukraine, Qatar and India.
These new markets are already having a major impact on collecting at the very upper level. For instance, until recently no one would have suggested that the Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich was an important collector, let alone an influential one. Yet, as The Art Newspaper reported in May, that month he was the anonymous buyer of Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping ($33.6m) and Bacon's 1976 Triptych ($86.3m). The purchases were the result of encouragement by Abramovich's girlfriend, Daria Zhukova, who is setting up the Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow. Is this a one-off trophy purchase or the launch of a new mega-collection and major public gallery? Only time will tell.
THE TOP COLLECTORS
JEAN PAUL BARBIER-MUELLER--Tribal Art Nationality: Swiss Age: 77 Source of wealth: Property
Josef Mueller began a collection of tribal art in the 1930s and, after his death in 1977, it was developed by his son-in-law Jean Paul Barbier. That year, Jean Paul and his wife, Monique, opened the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva, to present a changing selection of works in focused exhibitions (Fig. 2). They now have 7,000 objects, making it the world's greatest private collection of tribal art, which is particularly strong on Africa and Oceania. In 1997 the couple opened a second museum in Barcelona, for Pre-Columbian works.
ERNST BEYELER--20th-century painting and sculpture Nationality: Swiss Age: 86 Source of wealth: Art dealer
Initially Ernst Beyeler and his wife, Hildy, kept works they particularly liked that had failed to sell in their gallery, but they soon bought especially for their personal collection. The couple eventually decided to set up a public gallery at Riehen, on the northern outskirts of Basel, and the elegant Renzo Piano-designed building opened in 1997. The emphasis of the collection is on the first half of the 20th century, although it does have more recent works. There are 220 pieces by the great masters of modern art, with Picasso and Klee particularly well represented. The Beyeler Foundation has nearly 400,000 visitors a year, more than any other gallery in German-speaking Switzerland. One third of the space is for temporary exhibitions (currently Leger--see APOLLO'S June issue), with the remainder for the foundation's collection. Despite his age, Beyeler continues to run his commercial gallery in Basel.
ELI BROAD--Post-war and contemporary Nationality: American Age: 75 Source of wealth: Property and insurance
Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, began to collect modern and contemporary art in the 1970s, and have amassed one of America's greatest private collections. They have nearly 2,000 pieces, of which 400 (mainly 1960s and 1970s works) are personally owned for their Brentwood home, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The remainder (mainly contemporary) belongs to the Santa Monica-based Broad Art Foundation, which serves as a 'lending library' to museums across America. Purchases continue at the rate of over 100 works a year. Broad has donated $50m to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for a new extension, the Renzo Piano-designed Broad Contemporary Art Museum, which opened in February (see APOLLO's April issue). He gave a further $10m for acquisitions. It was widely assumed that most of the foundation's art would be presented to LACMA, but in January it was announced that it would remain with the Foundation (Fig. 3).
Broad was also the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He has given $26m to help build a Zaha Hadid-designed art museum at Michigan State University; building work is due to start this autumn, for completion in 2010.
AGNES GUND--Post-war, mainly American Nationality: American Age: 69 Source of wealth: Banking inheritance
Agnes Gund began collecting contemporary art in the late 1960s, with a focus on American artists. In 50 years she has acquired over 1,000 works. What marks her out is her generosity: she has been a major lender and donor to US galleries. Based in New York, she served as president of the Museum of Modern Art from 1991 to 2002 and led the fundraising drive for its $858m extension, which opened in 2004. Her husband, the lawyer Daniel Shapiro, collects Chinese antiquities.
NASSER DAVID KHALILI--Islamic and Japanese Meiji Nationality: British Age: 62 Source of wealth: Property
Although a number of major Islamic collectors have emerged in the Gulf in recent years, Nasser Khalili (born in Iran and of Jewish descent) has been at the forefront of this field since the 1970s. What makes him particularly important is that his works of art have been meticulously catalogued (in 27 volumes) and widely exhibited (in 18 shows, most recently in Abu Dhabi). He also has an important collection of 19th-century Japanese Meiji art, together with Swedish textiles, Spanish damascene metalwork and European enamels (the last to be unveiled in December 2009 in a show at the Hermitage in St Petersburg). Altogether, the Khalili collection comprises 25,000 pieces (see APOLLO'S March issue). There has been speculation about the source of his wealth, but since the 1990s most of it has come from Favermead, a UK property company that invests in shopping centres. Khalili has long been considering setting up a museum, possibly in London, but nothing has yet been arranged.
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