What the World’s Top Collectors Bought in 2023, From Art Historical Treasures to the Freshest Wet Paint
When it comes to being an active buyer of art, the collectors who rank on ARTnews’s annual Top 200 list are tough to beat. With voracious appetites to acquire and discerning eyes, each year they are on the hunt to grow their collection. For many, it’s something that will never be complete, but rather represents their personal journey as collectors—from getting to know artists to traveling the world over to see the latest biennials and major institutional shows.
This year, has been no different for the Top 200, who have acquired a diverse array of works from major historical works by the likes of Lee Krasner, Derek Jarman, Huguette Caland, Pacita Abad, Carmen Herrera, Frank Moore, and Maria Martins to works fresh from the studio by artists like Rashid Johnson, Alvaro Barrington, Che Lovelace, rafa esparza, and Toyin Ojih Odutola.
Below, a look at what our Top 200 Collectors recently purchased.
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Haryanto Adikoesoemo
For his Museum MACAN in Jakarta, Haryanto Adikoesoemo recently acquired works by Indonesian artists such as Irfan Hendrian and the late Ashley Bickerton, who was based in Bali from the early 1990s until his death in 2022. The museum quickly put both artists’ works on view in a collection show titled “di sini, d.l.l.” (Indonesian for “here, etc.”) that focused on the country’s history.
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Shane Akeroyd
With a collection rich in video art that includes Mark Leckey’s Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999), Hong Kong–based collector Shane Akeroyd has focused on growing his moving-image holdings, adding a historical work by Derek Jarman from 1971; more recent ones, both from 2010, by Alex Da Corte and Ingrid Pollard; and a 2021 two-channel video installation by Carolyn Lazard.
“My moving image collection is all about making work ‘available’ to those who might not ordinarily have access,” he told ARTnews. “Collectors have a responsibility to the work, artists, public and other stakeholders, but I am increasingly thinking about ways to help make this whole system more sustainable.”
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Pedro Barbosa
“The accumulation of works is part of what a collection is about,” Pedro Barbosa recently told ARTnews. “The new way to art collecting has to address the well-being of the art ecosystem, ethically supporting all stakeholders.” At the coleção moraes-barbosa in São Paulo, he and his team of curators and researchers have recently mounted exhibitions delving into the work of Regina José Galindo and Robert Smithson.
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Anita Blanchard and Martin Nesbitt
Of the nearly 20 works that Anita Blanchard and Martin Nesbitt acquired over the past 12 months, by heavy hitters like Mark Bradford, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Kerry James Marshall, and Barkley L. Hendricks, the ones that have the most resonance are two sculptures by Simone Leigh. In October 2022, Blanchard attended Loophole of Retreat, a three-day symposium on Black women’s intellectual and creative labor, organized as part of Leigh’s US Pavilion at that year’s Venice Biennale. “It was the most powerful convening that I have experienced,” Blanchard said. “Real connections were formed, and groundbreaking discussions were initiated.”
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Suzanne Deal Booth
“I am drawn to Winfred Rembert’s work for its honest representation of American stories that do not always get seen and told,” Suzanne Deal Booth told ARTnews. As a collector she wants to help raise the profile of the late artist’s work—and she’s done that already by donating Chain Gang Cotton Picking (2011) to the Menil Collection in Houston, and promising White Wall Tires (2005) to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. And at Art Basel in June, she was finally able to purchase an Etel Adan painting, Untitled (Green Abstract Landscape), ca. 1970.
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Estrellita and Daniel Brodsky
Two recent acquisitions by Estrellita and Daniel Brodsky—Mónica Giron’s Ajuar para un conquistador (Trousseau for a conqueror), 1993–ongoing, and Gonzalo Fonseca’s Ventana (1974)—are “in many ways representative of our collecting approaches as a couple,” Estrellita told ARTnews. The latter, a 600-pound sculpture that will soon be installed in their Upstate New York home, “reflects Dan’s particular interest in the intersection of art and architecture,” while the former, part of a series of soft sculptures, will feature in a show focused on textiles at Estrellita’s Another Space in Chelsea.“While the title calls attention to native culture and military conquest,” she said of Giron’s work, “the empty knit sweaters made from wool typically sourced in the area can be understood as ineffective protective coverings for the varied anatomies of Patagonian birds on the verge of extinction.”
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James Keith (JK) Brown and Eric Diefenbach
When it comes to adding new works to their 30-year-old collection, James Keith (JK) Brown and Eric Diefenbach have trouble buying just one work by an artist, opting instead to get a range of examples. Among those purchases this year are a drawing and sculpture by Leilah Babirye, an installation and mixed-media work by June Clark, three Lois Dodd paintings, two Julian Kent paintings, and two works on paper by Merikokeb Berhanu, whom they learned about through the 2022 Venice Biennale.
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Trudy and Paul Cejas
Among Trudy and Paul Cejas’s recent purchases is a 6-by-8-foot text-based painting from 2018 by Xaviera Simmons, Found the Seas Like the River, which Trudy described as “mixing historical narrative with words referencing beauty.”
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Adrian Cheng
On view at Hong Kong’s K11 Musea until November is one of Adrian Cheng’s latest acquisitions: Phyllida Barlow’s Untitled: Folly; Baubles, which debuted at the 2017 Venice Biennale as part of the late artist’s British Pavilion. “What drew me to it was her remarkable ability to transform discarded objects, detritus, and debris into vibrant sculptural forms,” Cheng said. “I love how she reveled in the possibilities of everyday materials, revealing their potential for artistic expression. She created a work that manages to be both menacing and playful, overwhelming and delicate at the same time.”
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Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Gustavo A. Cisneros
On a recent trip to Bogotá, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Gustavo A. Cisneros purchased a woven sculpture collaboratively made by artist Juan Arreaza and De’áruwa (Piaroa) artisans in the Urbana community in Matavén, Colombia. “The work represents the creation myth of De’áruwa craftsmanship, which is tied to the construction of their communal family homes called churuatas,” Phelps de Cisneros said. “These structures feature an open central space used by the community to gather and perform rituals, make crafts, and entertain guests, and like this artwork, are sites for sharing of knowledge and engaging in deep collaboration.”
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Isabel and Agustín Coppel
When it comes to collecting, Isabel and Agustín Coppel focus on both Mexican and international artists, which is reflected in their latest purchases: two sculptures by Abraham Cruzvillegas and an abstract painting each by Martha Jungwirth (Ohne Titel, 2022) and Lilia Carrillo (Emblema Cabalístico, 1965).
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Eduardo F. Costantini
In addition to scooping up pieces by Belkis Ayón, Abel Rodríguez, Tania Bruguera, and others, Eduardo F. Costantini purchased a major work, Cobra Grande (1943), by Brazilian artist Maria Martins, which he spotted in the booth of Gomide & Co at Art Basel in Switzerland this past June. The unique bronze sculpture, titled after a creature from Brazilian mythology, was exhibited at the esteemed Valentine Gallery in New York the year it was made.
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Basel Dalloul
“In the past year, I acquired over 50 pieces of art, a majority of which plugged holes left in the collection by my late father,” Basel Dalloul told ARTnews. Among them are works by Arab modernists like Hamed Owais, Ramses Wissa Wassef, Yvette Achkar, and Farid Belkahia, as well as by contemporary Arab artists like Serwan Baran, Abdul Rahman Katanani, Missak Terzian, and Katya Traboulsi, above left. Another significant purchase was Huguette Caland’s Vive la Liberté (1998).
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Lonti Ebers
Since first learning about Pacita Abad in 2022, Lonti Ebers has acquired several works by the late artist, dazzled by how significant a body of work she left behind. Her most recent Abad acquisition is 1983’s Irawan, made of stitched and padded canvas and batik cloth onto which the artist applied acrylic paint.
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Nicola Erni
Nicola Erni recently commissioned Rashid Johnson to create a new work for her collection. Titled The Broken Thirteen (The Last Supper), 2023, the work was created in dialogue with Andy Warhol’s silkscreen Sixty Last Suppers, itself a riff on Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. The Johnson and Warhol works now hang near each in Erni’s private museum in Switzerland. Seeing them together, Erni said, was an emotional experience.
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Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg (Eisenberg Family)
Long supporters of emerging talent, Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg recently purchased a 2022 untitled painting by Sedrick Chisom from the Matthew Brown Gallery in Los Angeles. “To me, it’s a little gem that offers everything you want from this young talented painter,” Martin told ARTnews. “A dreamy landscape evoking Civil War imagery executed with a great deal of flair.”
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Susan and Leonard Feinstein
Recent purchases by Susan and Leonard Feinstein include Anish Kapoor’s Inherent (2012) and Jean-Paul Riopelle’s Escarpé (1958).
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Michael C. Forman and Jennifer Rice
In addition to buying recent works by artists like Mark Bradford, Doris Salcedo, and Wangechi Mutu, Michael C. Forman and Jennifer Rice also made a historical purchase: Lee Krasner’s Siblings (1959), from the “Umber” series made following the death of her husband, Jackson Pollock. “Plagued by insomnia, Krasner often painted at night and changed from her more typical color palette to accommodate the harshness of the artificial light,”Forman said. “Her brushwork is at her most expressive within this series, perhaps revealing the all-consuming nature of grief.”
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Cecilie Fredriksen and Kathrine Fredriksen
Sisters Cecilie Fredriksen and Kathrine Fredriksen, who have loaned works from their family collection to Oslo’s National Museum, recently made three major purchases: Grace Hartigan’s Summer To Fall (1971), Wangechi Mutu’s MamaRay (2020), and Dana Schutz’s The Encounter (2022).
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Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman
Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman have voraciously collected top artists, with recent additions including works by Laura Owens, Amoako Boafo, Chase Hall, and Julien Nguyen. Among their latest purchases is 2023 work by Che Lovelace (Large Broadwalk Bathers, above), whom Glenn found out about through another collector. Coincidentally, Lovelace was slated to have a solo exhibition at Nicola Vassell Gallery this past March.
“I was immediately drawn to the one you now see,” Glenn told ARTnews. “I put it on reserve until the show so I could see it in person. I went during the installation and had a chance to spend some time with Che, which is always a wonderful opportunity to really understand a new group of works, especially by an artist I didn’t know well yet. I loved the work and was happy to buy it that morning, a few days before the show opened.”
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Denise and Gary Gardner
On the recommendation of fellow Top 200 Collector Pamela Joyner, Denise and Gary Gardner recently began researching the work of Lucia Laguna, who started making art full-time at the age of 57 after a career as a teacher.“As collectors, we aspire to reflect the entire African diaspora, so we have been interested in work by Brazilian artists for quite some time,” Denise said of Paisagem nº 134 (2022). “In her ‘Paisagem’ series, she paints ‘landscapes’ from the window view of her studio in a working-class area of North Rio de Janeiro. We were immediately attracted to this series of paintings that combine abstracted geometries, distorted scale, rich color, and an obvious love for place.”
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Barbara and Michael Gamson
“What struck me while looking over this list was that I ‘passed’ on many works by each of these artists awaiting the ‘right one,’” Barbara Gamson said of her and husband Michael’s recent purchases, which include pieces by Reggie Burrows Hodges, Harold Ancart, Kelly Akashi, and Michaela Yearwood-Dan. “With so many artists’ works in considerable demand, it has become increasingly difficult to collect artists’ works in depth, so to me it’s critical to acquire a piece that’s a perfect one!”
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He Jianfeng
Among He Jianfeng’s latest purchases are three sculptures, one each by Joel Shapiro, Stanislava Pinchuk, and Roni Horn, whose 2012–14 Untitled (“The sensation of sadness at having slept through a shower of meteors.”) was recently included in the artist’s largest solo exhibition in Asia (right), at the collector’s He Art Museum in Foshan, China.
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Dakis Joannou
Kaari Upson’s star has only continued to rise since her death in 2021. Following her inclusion in the 2022 Venice Biennale, Dakis Joannou this year purchased a 2007 painting from the artist’s acclaimed series “The Larry Project,” in which Upson fused her persona with that of a neighbor she never knew.
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Pamela Joyner and Alfred Giuffrida
Julie Mehretu will unveil a new commissioned work, Epiphanic Mass (Epitaph), at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame when the institution reopens in October. Envisioned for the museum’s entrance, the painting is a promised gift courtesy of Pamela Joyner and Alfred Giuffrida, whose other recent purchases include works by Faith Ringgold, Charles Gaines, Sydney Cain, and Emanoel Araújo. The latter acquisition, a black-painted sculpture completed just before Araújo’s untimely death in 2022, is part of an effort by the collectors to place a new focus on Afro-Brazilian artists following recent trips to Brazil.
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Elie Khouri
Among Elie Khouri’s recent purchases include a digital work by John Gerrad, which he found “both creative and deeply meaningful”; an abstract painting by Beatriz Milhazes, which he described “difficult to resist being swept up by the dynamic, colourful, and rhythmic geometric abstractions”; and a mixed-media work by Alvaro Barrington that he spotted during the inaugural edition of Paris+ last fall. Of the latter work, Khouri told ARTnews, “I found his work amazing because of his use of reclaimed materials. The painting I chose is a celebration of life and makes me feel like I am constantly on holiday.
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Jill and Peter Kraus
On top of purchases of mixed-media works by Angel Otero and Lauren Halsey, Jill and Peter Kraus have long commissioned artists to make new works, with several such projects currently in progress. “We ask the artists to leave their comfort zones and try new ideas and materials,” Jill told ARTnews. “It’s always a wonder to see where these commissions push each artist’s existing practice.”
Two recently completed ones are Tony Oursler’s Tear of the Cloud, which uses the couple’s Upstate New York home as a background for a multichannel video about the Hudson Valley, and Matthew Monahan’s 2nd Nature, a sculptural intervention that “looks like an archaeological dig, exposing ancient walls and bronze statuary that he imagined had come from prior civilizations.” Both took about a decade to produce.
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Grażyna Kulczyk
After years of looking, Grażyna Kulczyk was recently able to acquire a series of photographs
by Czech artist Běla Kolářová. “What intrigued me about her work was her approach to experimental photography, akin to the New Vision of the 1920s,” she told ARTnews. -
Catherine Lagrange
“My approach to collecting is driven by instinct and curiosity at first,” Catherine Lagrange told ARTnews. “Then comes the process of questioning what has drawn me to a particular piece in the first place.” Though she said her collection doesn’t have an overachieving thesis, she’s noticed that she has been drawn to sculpture in particular, acquiring work by the likes of Alina Szapocznikow, Donald Judd, Rosemarie Trockel, Carol Bove, and Andra Ursuţa, whose Canopic Jerrycan (2021) Lagrange recently purchased after its appearance in the Venice Biennale.
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Barbara and Jon Landau
For Barbara and Jon Landau, you can never have too many works by Gustave Courbet, their “favorite artist of 19th-century France.” This year, the couple purchased their 19th Courbet painting, La Pauvresse de Village (1866), which had passed through the hands of legendary dealer Justin Thannhauser. “Courbet was one of the greatest creators of snow scenes, there are very few left in private hands, and even less on this very large scale,” Jon told ARTnews. “It’s in perfect condition and we found it irresistible.”
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Liz and Eric Lefkofsky
For Liz and Eric Lefkofsky, the past year has seen the couple acquire works by Barbara Kruger (left), an artist they’ve longed supported, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, whose art has only now joined the collection with their purchase of “Untitled” (Last Light), from 1993, one of his famed strings of bulbs.
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Jennifer and Alec Litowitz
For the past seven years, Jennifer and Alec Litowitz have been delving deep into collecting the work of Barkley L. Hendricks, so they made sure to see the late artist’s most recent exhibition at New York’s Jack Shainman Gallery, featuring rarely seen photographs. “We were thrilled to acquire a grouping of photos by Hendricks, including one of his most iconic self-portraits from around 1980,” they told ARTnews of the work above.
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Martin Z. Margulies
A recent obsession for Martin Z. Margulies has been the work of Mimmo Paladino, the collector having purchased eight of his pieces this year, including 2022’s Giardino di eroi. About the subject of an exhibition opening in October at his Warehouse space in Miami, Margulies said, “Paladino is one of Italy’s most diverse artists working today, and his work goes to the very roots of Italy’s rich artistic history.”
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Cheech Marin
For some 30 years, Cheech Marin has been amassing one of the top collections of Chicanx art, filled with museum-quality sculptures and paintings like Marta Sánchez’s 2023 Retablo for Uvalde. A “new direction” for Marin comes in the form of a photograph by Chuy Benítez, whom he learned about through Elizabeth Ferrer’s Latinx Photography in the United States: A Visual History. “What struck me about Chuy’s suite of photographs is that they show the daily lives and lifestyles of Chicanos in Houston,” Marin said.
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Jarl and Pamela Mohn
Since Carmen Herrera’s 2016 survey at the Whitney Museum in New York, Jarl and Pamela Mohn have been on the hunt for one of her works, so it was a stroke of luck when Lisson Gallery offered Untitled Estructura (Green), 2007/2016, at this year’s Frieze LA fair.
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Takeo Obayashi
During the inaugural edition of Tokyo Gendai, Takeo Obayashi was the man of honor: he helped bring the fair to fruition, and opened up his private guesthouse to show off his collection. He also roamed the aisles, where he could be spotted buying art. One acquisition was Toyin Ojih Odutola’s So Precious (2023), part of a suite of new work made specifically for Jack Shainman Gallery’s booth.
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Andrea and José Olympio Pereira
Recent purchases by Andrea and José Olympio Pereira include sculptures by Zé Carlos Garcia, which feature intense arrangements of birds’ feathers. “I am passionate about birds and found that these strong ‘beings’ were interesting and different from anything I had seen,” José Olympio told ARTnews.
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Marsha and Jeffrey Perelman
A recent addition to Marsha and Jeffrey Perelman’s collection is Cecily Brown’s Sea, Swallow Me (2021–22). “The exhibit of her work at the Met this summer cemented our belief that she is a seriously important artist,” Marsha told ARTnews. “Additionally, of late we’ve found ourselves—with no conscious intention of doing so—collecting primarily the work of women artists, so this continues that direction.”
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Darlene and Jorge M. Pérez
With significant holdings of work by artists from the New York School, Darlene and Jorge M. Pérez have long been seeking the right Lee Krasner artwork, which they recently found in the form of her 1951 painting Number 2 (right). Another recent purchase is a work by Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, who represented Poland at the 2022 Venice Biennale. “Her work specifically explores the Roma experience, but it also bridges universal themes addressing issues of identity and psychological vulnerability, as do many other artists in the collection,” Jorge told ARTnews.
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Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi
For his Barjeel Art Foundation, Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi recently made two significant acquisitions: 1955’s The Lotus Girl by Nazek Hamdy and an untitled sculpture from the 1960s by Muazzez Rawda. “Both were female artists, largely forgotten in art historical narratives, yet whose remarkable work speaks volumes, and merits much further research,” Al Qassemi told ARTnews.
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Qiao Zhibing
“I pay attention to works that were being created during the pandemic,” Qiao Zhibing said of recent purchases Win (2021) by Luc Tuymans and Zhang Ding’s MONITOR THE GOOD AND THE BAD IN THE WORLD (2019–22). Other recent acquisitions include pieces by Anne Imhof, Ed Atkins, Chen Tianzhuo, and Thomas Houseago, whose Six Persimmons (For Qiao), 2022, will be included in the artist’s first institutional show in China, which opened in September at Qiao’s Tank Shanghai.
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Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Aside from purchases of works by Sayre Gomez, Ambera Wellmann, Thomas Schütte, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, and Simone Leigh, one recent acquisition holds special significance for Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo: an installation by Jota Mombaça (Ghost 0: Too much consciousness to be held by such a vulnerable entity, 2022) featuring sweeping waves of cotton fabric soiled by submersion that recently went on view at her exhibition space in Turin.
“It is the direct consequence of the performance that the same artist made as the inaugural act on the island of San Giacomo in Venice during the last Biennale,” she told ARTnews. “The majestic canvas is literally imprinted with all the signs, traces, and testimonies of its prolonged immersion in the waters of the Venetian lagoon.”
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Rubell Family
“Being an art collector today means trusting and accepting an artist’s vision, and being willing and open to the possibilities of where that art can take you,” Mera Rubell told ARTnews. Among her family’s recent purchases is Alexandre Diop’s L’Incroyable Traversée d’Abdoulaye Le Grand, Troisième de la Lignée (2022).
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Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani
They own works by Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Ayesha Sultana, Simon Fujiwara, Munem Wasif, Amol K Patil, Marina Perez Simão, Seher Shah, and Mona Hatoum, and Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani also recently purchased Veronika Hapchenko’s triptych shelter (2022). “It’s part of Hapchenko’s series devoted to Soviet-era avant-garde mosaics and murals, which are being destroyed due to the war [in Ukraine],” Nadia said, noting that Hapchenko’s style reminded her of Bengali painter SM Sultan, the first artist she ever collected.
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Elham and Tony Salamé
Elham and Tony Salamé recently purchased works by Seth Price, Joan Semmel, Mark Bradford, Nicole Eisenman, Cecily Brown, Walter Price, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, whose Glory in the Ounces (2023) was included in the artist’s recent Guggenheim Bilbao survey.
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Pete Scantland
A new addition to the Top 200 Collectors list, Pete Scantland recently purchased works by Lauren Halsey, Louise Giovanelli, Leslie Martinez, and Sayre Gomez, whose 3 Oracles (2022) was recently on view at Ohio’s Columbus Museum of Art in an exhibition of Scantland’s promised gifts to the museum. “I’m fascinated by Sayre’s uncanny depictions of Los Angeles, which are at once hyperreal and fantastical,” he said. “This work features three formerly authoritative, now nearly-extinct brands in a forlorn shopping center that could be anywhere, but feels like we’ve all been there before.”
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Jordan Schnitzer
Though several recent purchases by Jordan Schnitzer have extended beyond the realm of prints, by the likes of Hank Willis Thomas, Louise Nevelson, Vanessa German, and Jeffrey Gibson, one recent acquisition came in the form of a monumental ten-panel etching, titled The Manifestation of Historical Restlessness, that Julie Mehretu produced over the past three years with legendary printmaker Gemini G.E.L.
“As I watched her work on this print, I was fascinated by her ability to make images on paper come alive,” Schnitzer told ARTnews of his visits to see Mehretu at work on the piece. “We have been collecting her work for 20 years and cannot wait to get this latest print and look forward to it being the centerpiece for some amazing exhibitions at museums around the country.”
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Kim and Jon Shirley
Despite making a major donation of 48 works by Alexander Calder to the Seattle Art Museum in April, Kim and Jon Shirley couldn’t resist buying another, his1958 Yellow Disk (right), the first of Calder’s oil paintings they’ve ever acquired. Other purchases include works by Firelei Báez and Igshaan Adams. “Fostering intergenerational dialogues between artists across eras is a guiding vision for our collection,” Jon told ARTnews.
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Sara and John Shlesinger
Recent purchases by Sara and John Shlesinger include works by Vaughn Spann, Dominic Chambers, Mimi Lauter, and Ryan Cosbert (Currency of the Ocean, 2021).
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Gary Steele and Steven Rice
Gary Steele and Steven Rice’s collection holds pieces by the likes of Rashid Johnson, Mary Weatherford, Doron Langberg, and Alice Neel, and they have promised an untitled 2020 painting by Henry Taylor to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. “This is an example of how we’re actively looking for ways to support artists that we believe are important and at the same time support important art institutions,” Steele told ARTnews.
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Emile Stipp
The past year has seen Emile Stipp acquire paintings, like Georgina Gratrix’s Mr Nice to Meet You (2011) and photography, like Lebohang Kganye’s Ke monahano ke ntse ke le pating II (2013).
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Julia Stoschek
Among Julia Stoschek’s recent acquisitions are three historical videos by Ulysses Jenkins, as well as Third World: The Bottom Dimension (2022) by Gabriel Massan, marking the first video game to enter her collection.
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Hiroshi Taguchi and Miwa Taguchi-Sugiyama
Recent purchases by Miwa Taguchi-Sugiyama and her father Hiroshi Taguchi include works by Yukinori Yanagi, Jonathas de Andrade, William Kentridge, and Kapwani Kiwanga, whose Hour glass #3 (2022) they saw at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Kiwanga will also feature in this year’s 35th Bienal de São Paulo, for which Taguchi-Sugiyama is a member of the International Advisory Board. “We hope to promote more human exchange between Japan and other countries,” she said ahead of a trip to Brazil, along with eight Japanese curators.
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Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza
Through her TBA21–Academy and in collaboration with Audemars Piguet Contemporary, Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza recently commissioned a work by Petrit Halilaj and Álvaro Urbano that was performed at Ocean Space in Venice, right. “When I first experienced Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas in April, I fell into trance,” she told ARTnews about the performance. “It embodied a notion that runs like a red thread through the TBA21 Collection: the various forms of connecting with the world, to find a different relationship to the ocean, and to attempt to build an oceanic worldview to share with our audiences.”
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Anne and Wolfgang Titze
Their collection of works by Etel Adnan, Thomas Schütte, and Barry X Ball expanded when Anne and Wolfgang Titze bought Matt Mullican’s 1800 Paris with Details (“love at first sight,” he said of the piece at left), and Valie Export’s 2010 Die Doppelgängerin (“she has been missing dearly from our collection for too long a time,” Wolfgang said).
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Robbi and Bruce E. Toll
“If you can’t see it, don’t buy it,” Bruce E. Toll said of his and wife Robbi’s collecting habits. One recent purchase was Robert Delaunay’s Rythme circulaire (1937) from a Sotheby’s evening auction in March. “It was [made during] a very important time in his life. There were other paintings alongside of it that have been lost. I already have a great Robert Delaunay I bought a few years ago, and it is from around that time. I think this concludes my purchases of Delaunay for the moment.”
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Josef Vascovitz and Lisa Goodman
“We waited a long time to get the ‘right’ rafa esparza work,” Josef Vascovitz and Lisa Goodman said of Auction Block 2 Olmec Jade Figures, Mexico Circa 1100–500 BC, after invaluable.com, which they purchased from a group show curated by Ever Velasquez at Charlie James Gallery in LA. Other recent additions to the collection include pieces by Shellyne Rodriguez, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Zohra Opoku, Loc Huynh, Nicolas Lambelet Coleman, and Tidawhitney Lek.
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Alice Walton
Founded by Alice Walton in 2017, Art Bridges Foundation is dedicated to expanding access to American art, primarily by lending works from its collection to institutions across the country. Recent acquisitions include Miss Liberty by Robert Colescott, Fantasy for Legs and Feet by Grace Hartigan, and Collage X Landscape by George Morrison, which will go on view at the Bruce Museum in Connecticut in November.
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Reinhold Würth
Joining several other Max Beckmann works in Reinhold Würth’s collection, like Quappi in Blue in a Boat (1926/1950), is Self-Portrait Yellow-Pink (1943).
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Sonya Yu
This past year, Top 200 newcomer Sonya Yu has bought several works across time, from recent works by Jacqueline Humphries, Amy Sillman, and Rachel Whiteread to historical works by Martin Wong and Frank Moore, whose Library (1989) was among those purchases.
“The themes in Frank Moore’s practice speak to me on an intensely personal level—AIDS, the LBGTQ community, the environment, the natural world,” Yu told ARTnews. “And while he’s surprisingly been overlooked, despite being largely responsible for giving life to the Red Ribbon Project, I hope to change that. Library represents a seminal work in Frank’s output where the pictorial plane is extended to the framing convention—in this case, books. Given recent headlines, Library feels particularly relevant even 30 years later.”
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Anita and Poju Zabludowicz
Among the UK’s most prodigious collectors, Anita and Poju Zabludowicz recently added Trey Abdella’s 2021 Washed Out (above), Anthony Akinbola’s 2023 Shotgun, and Berenice Olmedo’s 2023 Yunuen to their collection.