Art galleries go where money is

In a bid to turn more bonus-rich bankers into art collectors, 12 British galleries will set up booths for three days next month in Canary Wharf, the London financial district whose towers are home to such firms as Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc.

The “Art & the City” fair will display everything from sculptures by Auguste Rodin and Henry Moore to pictures by Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, Andy Warhol and U.K. artist Damien Hirst, who last month sold a medicine cabinet at a London auction for more than $1.8 million. There also will be Cartier and Rolex watches, Georg Jensen silverware and gilded Himalayan statues.

“A lot of the more important collectors in the past 10 years have worked in finance,” said Harry Blain, who runs Haunch of Venison, London’s biggest contemporary art dealer, according to Art Newspaper. “Many are well advised, but they lack the time to buy art so we thought we’d come to them.”

“It’s an interesting marketing ploy,” said John Studzinski, a collector who is co-head of corporate and investment banking at HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank. “It’s like the art world’s version of the Tupperware party.”