The West’s growing art collection

NOT art news: Los Angeles billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad has, once again, made ARTnews magazine’s annual top 10 list of art collectors. (As they did last year, Broad and his wife, Edythe, rank No. 2 behind New York investment banker Leon Black and wife Debra.)

Art news: Two Hollywood players -- producer and writer Michael Crichton and Warner Bros. President Alan Horn and wife Cindy -- have been added to ARTnews’ top 200 list, a group that also includes entertainment moguls David Geffen and Michael Ovitz. And, also in the Wild West, Las Vegas resort king Stephen A. Wynn, for several years among the top 200, has moved into the top 10.

According to the magazine, the Los Angeles area -- including Beverly Hills and Santa Monica -- accounts for 10 of the 200 most active collectors. That puts L.A. fourth on the list of cities that are home to active art collectors, behind New York, London and Paris.

The “most active” distinction, says ARTnews executive editor Milton Esterow, does not necessarily go to individuals who have spent the most money on art but rather is bestowed upon those who are in the midst of acquiring multiple works for an expanding collection. So -- just as an example -- dropping $135 million on one Gustav Klimt “gold” painting might not buy you a place on the list.

Adds Esterow, “Also I’d like to point out that you might have a collection that’s worth $1 billion -- and there are people who have such collections -- but you’re not going to be on the list if you haven’t bought anything in the last few years or so.”

Is there a real value to such a list in the art world? Esterow says that, for the magazine, compiling the list “gives us the chance to survey who are the active collectors, who are the new collectors.”

“What we don’t say in the survey is, of course, what’s the difference between a collector and an investor? It’s no secret that some of the folks on the list buy art for speculative reasons,” Esterow acknowledges. “Steve Wynn -- who’s always good for a quotable line -- says: ‘The collector wants the art more than he or she wants the money.’ I think that sums it up pretty well.”

Diane Haithman