The most important private Art collections

by G. Fernández – theartwolf.com. Published: May 2007. Updated: February 2020
Not all art masterpieces are exhibited in the great museums of the world. Many belong to private collectors, one of the most expensive and exclusive “hobbies” on the planet. From the great collections of the European nobility to the modern gurus of contemporary Art, theartwolf.com has selected what are possibly the best private Art collections in the world.

We have focused on the private collections that belong to a single person, not to a family foundation or private museum, so the list does not include collections such as the Getty Foundation in California or the E. G Buhrle in Zurich.

• The Royal Collection
• Country: United Kingdom
• Areas of the collection: Old masters, European sculpture, jewelry, furniture
• Estimated value of collection: more than $8 billion
• Accessible to the public: yes (in several museums)
• There is little to say about the British Royal Collection, indisputably the most important private collection in the world. Although it is true that the possibility of this collection being dispersed or coming on the market is remote -not to say nil- it must be noted that it is actually owned by the monarch, in her personal capacity. The Duke of Edinburgh once declared that the Queen was “perfectly at liberty to sell” the works in the collection, if she so wished. Among the many masterpieces of the collection, the “Raphael Cartons”, which could be valued at more than 500 million dollars each, “The Shipbuilder and his Wife”, by Rembrandt, or “The Massacre of the Innocents”, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

• Ezra and David Nahmad
• Country: Monaco
• Areas of the collection: Impressionist, modern and contemporary art.
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $2.5 billion
• Accessible to the public: no
• Yes, it is true that we promised to include only collections belonging to a single person, but we must make an exception in the case of brothers and art dealers Ezra and David Nahmad. The Nahmads’ colossal collection includes over 300 works by Picasso, including “Fillette à la corbeille fleurie,” a Blue Period work from the Rockefeller collection, acquired for $115 million in 2018. But as dealers, the Nahmads have also made million-dollar sales. In 2008, they put Monet’s “Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil” up for auction, something they later regretted, despite the more than $40 million the painting raised. They own several other important Monets, like “Les canotiers à Argenteuil”.

• Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein
• Country: Austria / Liechtenstein
• Areas of the collection: Old masters, European sculpture, furniture
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $2 billion
• Accessible to the public: Yes (Liechtenstein Museum)
• Possibly the most important royal collection in the world, not counting that of the English Crown. The group of Old Master paintings is impressive, including several important Rubens (such as “Mars and Rhea Silvia” and “Venus in front of the Mirror”) and an early portrait by Raphael. Also on display is the Badminton cabinet, which was acquired for a record price for a piece of furniture. And all this despite having sold, in 1967, the most important work in the collection, “Ginevra Benci” by Leonardo da Vinci, which was acquired by the National Gallery of Washington for $5 million, then a record price for any work of art. (photo by GuentherZ, license Creative Commons)

• Steven A. Cohen
• Country: United States
• Areas of the Collection: Modern and contemporary art
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $1.5 billion
• Accessible to the public: no
• In the last 20 years, few names have made such an impact on the art market as Steven A. Cohen. Initially, his purchases focused on Impressionist and early 20th century art (in 2005 he acquired Van Gogh’s “Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat” and Gauguin’s “Bathers” from Stephen A. Wynn for about $120 million), but he later focused on contemporary art. Among the most famous works in his collection are Roy Lichtenstein’s “Masterpiece”, purchased for $165 million (a record for the artist), Giacometti’s “L’homme au doigt”, bought for $141 million (a record for a sculpture), “Woman III” by Willem de Kooning (at the time the second most expensive work ever sold), “Flag” by Jasper Johns ($110 million), “False Start” by the same author ($80 million), one of Warhol’s “Shot Marilyns”, and “Rabbit” by Jeff Koons ($91 million). Despite these exorbitant figures, perhaps his most famous acquisition was “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”, the controversial work by Damien Hirst acquired in 2005 for 8 million dollars.

• Guy Wildenstein
• Country: France and the United States
• Areas of the collection: Old masters, impressionist and modern art.
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $1.5 billion
• Accessible to the public: no
• In the art market world, it is possible that no family is as legendary as the Wildensteins. The family patriarch, Nathan Wildenstein, started a huge art trading business, being the favourite dealer of Rockefeller, Kress, and the Mellon family. In addition to his facet as a dealer, the Wildensteins amassed a colossal collection, possibly the most important in private hands excluding the Royal Collection, which remained more or less intact until the death of Daniel Wildenstein, in 2001. A legal battle for the inheritance began, of which there are many rumors and very few certainties, being possible that the inheritance was divided 50/50 between Guy and his brother Alec Nathan, now deceased. If it was already difficult to know the extent of the Wildenstein collection (with several works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Gogh, Renoir, Gauguin, Cézanne, Monet, etc.) before 2001, now it is even more complicated to know its distribution, and how much of it belongs to Daniel Wildenstein’s only living son. It is generally believed that his collection includes “Lute Player”, generally attributed to Caravaggio, as well as a large part of the Impressionist paintings.

• Phillipe Niarchos
• Country: Greece
• Areas of the collection: Impressionist, modern and contemporary art. Some Old Master painting
• Estimated value of collection: more than $1.5 billion
• Accessible to the public: partially
• Phillipe Niarchos has continued the collection started by his father, which includes what is possibly the best gropu of Van Gogh works in private hands, including “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear”, which could be worth around $200 million on the open market, and “Portrait of Pere Tanguy”. Also included in the collection is Picasso’s self-portrait “Yo, Picasso”, bought for $47.8 million in 1989, Gauguin’s excellent “Riders on the Beach”, or Warhol’s “Red Marilyn”, bought for $3.6 million in 1994, and which today could be worth at least 30 times that figure.

• Edythe & Eli Broad
• Country: United States
• Areas of the collection: Contemporary art, pre-Columbian art
• Estimated value of the collection: over $1.2 billion
• Accessible to the public: yes (partially, at The Broad)
• Eli & Edythe Broad have amassed one of the world’s most important collections of contemporary art, especially strong in works by Andy Warhol (“Single Elvis”, “Twenty Jackies”, “Race Riot”) and Jeff Koons (“Rabbit”, “Michael Jackson and Bubbles”).

• Mitchell Rales
• Country: United States
• Areas of the collection: Contemporary art
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $1 billion
• Accessible to the public: yes (Glenstone Museum)
• The collection of American billionaire Mitchell Rales is exhibited in Glenstone, a spectacular private museum in Potomac, Maryland, curated by his wife Emily Wei Rales. Albeit the collection includes several significant works (Pollock’s “Frieze” and “Number 1, 1952” rank among the most important paintings by the artist still in private hands), the museum itself, an architectural marvel in the middle of nature, is the highlight of the collection.

• Kenneth Griffin
• Country: United States
• Areas of the collection: Modern and contemporary art
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $800 million
• Accessible to the public: no
• CEO of Citadel LLC, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, Griffin has made spectacular acquisitions (sometimes paying rather questionable prices) in order to build up a major collection of contemporary art. Among the highlights, of course, the $500 million paid for a work by Willem de Kooning (“Interchange”) and one by Pollock (“Number 17A”). More recently, in 2020, Griffin bought Peter Brant’s “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump”, perhaps the finest of all Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings, for $100 million.

• Francis Egerton, Duke of Sutherland
• Country: United Kingdom
• Areas of the collection: Old masters, European sculpture, jewelry, furniture
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $800 million
• Accessible to the public: partially on loan to the National Galleries of Scotland
• The Duke of Sutherland is the heir to the Bridgewater Collection, which includes important works by Rembrandt (a sensational “Self-Portrait”), Raphael (“Bridgewater Madonna”) or Titian (“The Three Ages of Man”), works that could be valued at over $100 million each. Also included is the entire series of “The Sacraments” by Nicolas Poussin. In 2008, the collection lost two of its most important works, as Titian’s “Diana and Actaeon” and “Diana and Callisto” were sold to the United Kingdom for about 100 million pounds.

• Steve Wynn
• Country: United States
• Areas of the collection: Old masters, impressionist, modern and contemporary art
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $800 million
• Accessible to the public: partially (Bellagio Las Vegas)
• Wynn has been a major figure in the art market in recent decades, with his spectacular acquisitions for his personal gallery at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The works owned by Wynn range from Old Master paintings (such as J. M. William Turner’s “La Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio”) to works by Impressionist and modern painters like Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso. However, Wynn is also known for reselling several of his acquisitions. A small work attributed to Vermeer (acquired at Sotheby’s in 2004) was sold a few years later to the Leiden Collection. Steve Cohen has also acquired several works through Wynn, including Van Gogh’s “Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat” and Gauguin’s “Bathers,” as well as the famous sale of Picasso’s “Le Rêve” closed at $155 million after the painting was accidentally damaged with his elbow by Wynn himself.

• Leon Black
• Country: United States
• Areas of the collection: Old masters, impressionist, modern and contemporary art
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $800 million
• Accessible to the public: partially (several works on loan to museums)
• For most art aficionados, Leon Black’s name became known when it was announced that he had been the buyer of Munch’s “The Scream,” auctioned at Sotheby’s for $120 million. But Black had been active in the art market long before that, with rumors that it was he who acquired “Seascape, Folkestone,” J.M.W. Turner’s finest painting in private hands, from David Thomson, in the early 1990s. Black also owns “Head of an Apostle,” an important Raphael drawing, and the controversial sculpture “Bust of a Woman (Marie-Thérèse)” by Pablo Picasso.

• David Geffen
• Country: United States
• Areas of the collection: Contemporary art
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $800 million
• Accessible to the public: no
• Unlike the other names on this list, David Geffen may be better known for his sales than his purchases. In 2006, Geffen sold Jackson Pollock’s “Number 5, 1948” for $140 million, and Willem de Kooning’s “Woman III” for $137.5 million, which were then the first and second highest prices ever paid for a work of art. In 2015, he sold another Pollock and another de Kooning to Kenneth Griffin for a total of $500 million. So, what’s left in David Geffen’s collection? Well, enough to form “one of the finest collections of post-war American art,” in the words of the director of MOCA Los Angeles. Among the most outstanding works, “Target with Plaster Casts” by Jasper Johns or “The Splash” by David Hockney.

• Carmen Cervera
• Country: Spain
• Areas of the collection: Old masters, impressionist and modern art
• Estimated value of the collection: more than $800 million
• Accessible to the public: yes (mostly at the Museo Thyssen, Madrid and Museo Carmen Thyssen, Malaga)
• Widow of Baron Thyssen, perhaps the most important art collector of the 20th century, Carmen Thyssen was one of the most active figures in the art market in the 80s and 90s. In recent years, economic difficulties have forced her to sell some of her most important works, among them John Constable’s “The Lock”. However, she still keeps Gauguin’s “Mata Mua”, the jewel of the collection that could be valued at more than $100 million, as well as a remarkable and diverse collection of paintings, including Simone Martini (“Saint Peter”), Turner (“The Redeemer and the Giudecca”), Caspar David Friedrich or Vincent van Gogh.