Broad, Geffen make Forbes' list of top billionaire collectors*

When it comes to wealth-porn lists of billionaires and their possessions, no one does it with more enthusiasm -- and regularity -- than Forbes.

The publication today released its list of the world's top billionaire art collectors and the ranking contains many of the international art world's usual suspects: Eli Broad, David Geffen, François Pinault and more.

Unlike the more comprehensive ARTnews 200 list that was published a few weeks ago, the Forbes list concentrates on billionaires and excludes gallery owners and other art trade notables.

Topping the list is Philip Niarchos, son of the late shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos. 

Forbes says his art is worth at least $2 billion. His collection is said to include Vincent van Gogh's "Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear" and Pablo Picasso's self-portrait "Yo, Picasso." He also owns Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Self-Portrait" and Andy Warhol's "Shot Red Marilyn."

Pinault came in second, with a collection estimated at $1.4 billion that includes 2,000-plus works by more than 80 artists such as Picasso, Piet Mondrian and Jeff Koons.

The Broads, Geffen and Ronald Lauder are ranked next, tied with respective collections said to be worth $1 billion each.

Forbes said that the value of Geffen's collection was "a matter of heated debate." Apparently, one source said the entire collection is worth only $400 million, due to the plunge in contemporary art prices while others placed it well above that estimate.

Among the other listmakers are Leon Black, Steven Cohen, Henry Kravis, Samuel Newhouse Jr. and Esther Grether, who is the only woman on the list.

Forbes said that Grether is a little-known Swiss cosmetics heiress whose owns a 7.5% stake in Swatch and whose art collection consists of  more than 600 pieces, including works by Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dali and Francis Bacon.

Forbes said all of the billionaires on its list have collections worth $700 million or more.

-- David Ng

* A previous version of this post incorrectly implied that Philip Niarchos was linked to Paris Hilton. It was in fact his son who has been linked to Hilton.

Photo: Eli Broad. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[thecanimalshusband]

Conspicuous consumption. These people are so full of themselves.

[Not rich]

Great. A vast collection of work that the average "not rich" individual will never see. Makes me sad that genius is collected and horded by the elite.

[RQH]

Sorry guys, but fine art is and has always been for the elite. If you get to see it in a museum consider yourselves lucky.

[Donald Frazell]

Let him keep it, like all academic nonsssense, it is bound for the landfills anyway. What is current and hot is always what passifies and tittilates the rich, and irrelevant to humanity. As art defines who WE are, not a small group, it will not last. Glad he has it, and keep it out of the museums which have enough garbage already.

And yes, art does have meaning and purpose. that which lasts anyway. And defining a group, now since modernism all of humanity, through the filter of the artists knowledge and experience, exploring nature, and searching for god, whatever that means to you.

Look it up. Anything which outlasts its generation and is still around after the one that created it dies off, fits this definition. The destruction of arts purpose is the focus of the rich and art academies, so all can be marketed. Its about sales, and control. Not art anymore. Look it up, from the caves of Lascaux to the Palace of Knossos to the Sistine Chapel to Matisse Dance, all fit this definition. There is no "new" definition to art, just like there is no "new" economy. The self interested belief and promotion of such always ends in disaster, as we are now living through. A healthy eocnomy is about producing more than one consumes. And art is the above. Proven in the long run, time after time after time....

art collegia delenda est

[jim totulis]

True art stands the test of time but only if saved,apprOpriated and spoken of, is the secret of why and what YOUsee NOW!