What’s most striking about ARTnews’s recently published list of the Top 200 Collectors isnt’t the set of people included — after all, a Top 10 including Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Eli Broad (pictured), Steven Cohen, and François Pinault isn’t exactly a revelation — but the weird ways in which some of them became rich. Below we’ve collected 10 the oddest sources of wealth of the 200 biggest collectors in the world.
Art: British artist Damien Hirst — perhaps you’ve heard of him? — sells enough of his own work to be a major collector of modern and contemporary art.
Musical Theater: Legendary stage musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber collects 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century British and American painting — especially Pre-Raphaelite — and German Expressionism.
Horse Breeding: Susan and John Magnier divide their time between Ireland, Geneva, Spain, and Barbados, supplementing their horse breeding income with investments, and collecting 18th-century British painting, 20th-century Irish art, modern art, and, of course, equestrian art.
Fur Trading: Though they’re also financiers, Zurich-based fur trade millionaires Gabrielle and Werner Merzbacher collect 20th-century art, particularly Fauvist and German Expressionist works.
Discount Tires: Diane and Bruce Halle, who split their time between Arizona and Colorado, and collect Latin American art and contemporary sculpture.
Tooth and Garden Equipment: Pennsylvania-based collectors Marsha and Jeffrey Perelman put the money they make manufacturing dental and landscape maintenance equipment towards postwar and contemporary art.
Home Improvement Stores: Manchester-based Cherryl and Frank Cohen, who specialize in contemporary and modern British art.
Coca-Cola Bottling in the Caribbean: Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz of Key Biscayne, Florida, who collect contemporary art.
Casinos and Professional Fighting: Las Vegas’s Frank J. Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta, who collect modern and contemporary art.
Perfume Empire Inheritance: French collectors Florence and Daniel Guerlain, whose collection of contemporary art focuses on drawings.
— Benjamin Sutton
Tags: Andrew Lloyd Webber, ARTnews, Benjamin Sutton, Collectors, Damien Hirst


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