ARTnews, a global art-related information distributor, has published the "200 Top Art Collectors in the World" every year since the 1990s.
In the collector community, the list has become a role model and a reference for how to build an art collection.
In this issue, we have selected the world's representative top collectors and Japanese collectors to introduce you to them.
Please use them as a reference to create an image of art investment.
Tadashi Yanai, Japan's top asset manager (Fast Retailing)
One of Japan's Leading Art Collectors
Tadashi Yanai, one of Japan's richest men, once told The New Yorker, "I don't think art is something to be studied. I don't think art is something to be studied. I think art is not something to be studied.
Yanai says that art is something to be enjoyed by wearing and experiencing, like the products of his own business, the apparel industry.
Yanai heads Fast Retailing, a conglomerate that includes UNIQLO, Helmut Lang, Theory, and J Brand; as of September 2020, CEO Magazine estimates his net worth at $12.88 billion.
UNIQLO's MoMA Collaboration
Uniqlo is known for its frequent collaborations with the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Works from MoMA's collection by famous artists such as Warhol, Pollock, Basquiat, and Keith Haring have become UNIQLO clothing and "wearable art" at prices affordable to the masses.
Tadashi Yanai's Art Collection
Yanai does not have much to say about his own art collection.
I don't know if I would call it a collection," he says. But other people seem to consider it a collection.
Goro Obayashi" (Obayashi Corporation), active in mecenat projects
Commissioned Tadao Ando to design a private museum
Goro Obayashi, chairman of the major general contractor Obayashi Corporation, is known for commissioning Tadao Ando to design a private museum in Azabu called "Yuan".
Viewed from the outside, Yu-an resembles a large glass box. The first and second floors are residential space, while the basement is used to display a collection of 780 pieces of contemporary art.
The fact that Mr. Obayashi commissioned the famous architect, who is also known as the "ANDO of the world," to design this private museum alone shows his extraordinary wealth and deep commitment to art.
Private Museum Yuan
A Collection of the World's Top Artists
Mr. Obayashi states, "The process of building up my collection has been very varied.
There are many stories behind the building of my collection, so I have a very personal attachment to the works I own.
Yuan features works by international artists such as Daniel Buren, Tracey Emin, Mike Kelley, Yayoi Kusama, and Mark Quinn, as well as site-specific installations by artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Lee Bul, Gabriel Orozco, and Tokujin Yoshioka. The basement gallery is open to the public.
Several exhibitions are held annually in the basement gallery."
Inspiration for the Collection
Daniel Buran, "From Floor to Ceiling and Vice Versa," on display in the reception room on the 29th floor of the Obayashi Corporation headquarters in Minato-ku, Tokyo.
Mr. Obayashi's collection began as a way to decorate his company's office.
In the process, he says, he found it very stimulating to engage in dialogue with the artists themselves.
Recently, he has been paying particular attention to young Japanese artists, telling Artinfo in a 2010 interview, "There is so much talent out there, but unfortunately no one is paying attention to it.
There is no doubt that the art world as a whole has been energized by Obayashi's energetic support and collection activities.
Mariko Mori "Last Departure" on display on Broadway, 23rd floor
Hiroshi Taguchi / Miwa" (MISUMI Group), a collection focusing on Pop Art
Hiroshi Taguchi, co-founder of the international manufacturing company MISUMI Group, began collecting art in 1996.
He started out with a corporate collection called the "MISUMI Collection," which focused on American Pop Art, and later branched out to include works by international artists, and now has a collection of over 500 works.
After retiring from MISUMI's board of directors in 2002, he began amassing his own collection, which he named the "Taguchi Art Collection.
Joint Collection with Daughter Miwa
Since 2013, his daughter, Miwa Taguchi, has been managing the collection, purchasing artworks and holding exhibitions throughout Japan.
Miwa has said in the past that she is trying to create a "collection for everyone.
The most important mission of the Taguchi Art Collection is to provide opportunities for people to enjoy contemporary art throughout the country." We are always trying to enhance our collection so that we can provide people with quality artwork. That's very exciting."
Delivery Museums" held at elementary schools across the country
Extensive List of Collected Artists
Collecting a variety of media, the Taguchi's collection includes works by Japanese artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Takashi Murakami, Yutaka Sone, Yoshitomo Nara, and Yoko Ono, as well as international artists such as Korakrit Arunanonchai.
Other international artists in the collection include Matthew Barney, Maurizio Cattelan, Olafur Eliasson, Adrian Geaney, Rashid Johnson, Pipilotti Rist, Ugo Rondinone, Kehinde Wiley, and Keith Haring. What artists should we keep an eye on in the future?
What artists to watch for in the future?
New additions to the 2022 collection include Ryan Gander, Yinka Shonibare, Kadar Attia, and EUGENE STUDIO (Eugene Kangawa), the youngest artist ever to have an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
For example, Gander's work titled "Time Well Spent" (2019) consists of a vending machine that asks collectors to sell the artist's edition works.
Gander says, "I think it would be interesting if these vending machines were used to sell artists' works here and there during collection exhibitions at art museums around Japan."
Jeff Bezos," the man who made $13 billion in one day (Amazon)
The man who became the richest man in the world.
In August 2020, Forbes reported that Bezos' net worth exceeded $200 billion; $200 billion was the highest asset value on the market at the time. (Bill Gates' net worth, the world's second largest, was tens of billions of dollars ahead of Bezos.)
Much of that wealth came from the world's number one digital marketplace, Amazon.
In 2020, Amazon was widely criticized for inadequate worker safety during the Corona pandemic, but Bezos' wealth only grew.
Just a month before hitting the $200 billion mark, Bloomberg reported that he had added $13 billion in assets in a single day.
Bezos as a Collector
That same year, Bezos' image as an art collector also made news.
In November 2019, a painting by Ed Ruscha titled "Hurting the Word Radio #2" (1964), with the word "RADIO" compressed by two clamps, sold for $52.5 million to an anonymous telephone bidder at a Christie's auction, setting a Ruscha work The bidder was later identified as Bezos.
It was later discovered that the buyer was Bezos himself, and that Bezos had also purchased another work.
Kerry James Marshall's "Vignette 19" (2014) was purchased at Sotheby's for $18.5 million, also the second-highest bid ever for a work by the artist.
Not much is yet known about when and how Bezos began buying art, but his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez may have had something to do with his taste as a collector.
Support for Culture and the Arts
In February 2021, Bezos announced that he would step down as CEO of Amazon over the summer.
He transitioned to the role of executive chairman, but later that year he donated $200 million to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and in 2022 he donated $10 million to the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, which named its Innovation Center after Bezos. His interest in culture and the arts is evident.
Adrian Chen (K11), Hong Kong's most important collector
When Adrian Cheng began amassing a collection of outstanding contemporary art from around the world in 2010, he was rumored to be the youngest billionaire in the world.
Cheng inherited the $9.4 billion New World Development real estate and retail business founded by his grandfather, Cheng Yutong, of which he is executive vice chairman. And as part of that, he launched the K11 brand in Hong Kong in 2009.
How the K11 concept was created
Cheng launched K11 from two facts.
One is that art belongs to the masses.
The other is that the public is likely to visit a mall at one time or another.
Shopping on the main floor will help fund the contemporary art exhibits in the basement and expose more public audiences to contemporary art.
In 2022, the company announced plans to open a 2.4 million-square-foot cultural complex in Shenzhen. The project has a price tag of $1.4 billion.
Hong Kong's Leading Art Facility
Cheng's K11 Art Foundation (KAF) has exhibition spaces in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
It has invited world-renowned contemporary artists such as Katharina Grosse, Guan Xiao, Neïl Beloufa, Zhang Enli, and Oscar Murillo to participate in more than 60 exhibitions in major Chinese cities.
The foundation has also developed major projects outside of China, including the 2014 Armory Show in New York, which featured Liang Yuanwei, and has provided residencies for Chinese artists from around the world.
Supporting Contemporary Art in His Country
Chen's goal is not only to educate the public about art in general, but also to raise awareness of Chinese contemporary art in particular.
I think Chinese contemporary art is rediscovering China's cultural identity and building a new Chinese culture," Chen told ARTnews in 2014.
Prosperous Art-Related Activities Outside the Country
Cheng is beginning to branch out beyond the mall.
In 2016, he joined the board of the New York-based Public Art Fund, and in November 2018, he joined the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, where he worked first with the museum's new director, Klaus Bizenbach.
In May 2019, the Council of Fashion Designers of America appointed Chen as a "Global Ambassador," according to Hong Kong Tatler. The position is to be tasked with supporting American designers in developing their brands abroad.
Hélène & Bernard Arnault (LVMH), the world's richest man
As chairman of the conglomerate LVMH, Bernard Arnault and his wife Hélène, who own several luxury brand companies including Louis Vuitton and Loewe, are the wealthiest couple, also known as a regular member of the Top 200 collectors.
According to news released by Reuters in April 2023, Arnault's $221 billion in assets made him the world's richest man, ahead of last year's leader, Elon Musk.
Collaboration between a luxury brand and a contemporary artist
Arnault often enlists the help of artists when designing new products for his luxury brands, commissioning Richard Prince and Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton and Jeff Koons for Dom Perignon to create special edition packaging.
Opening of the LVMH Museum of Fine Arts
In 2014, the Louis Vuitton Foundation opened a $135 million Frank Gehry-designed museum in the Boulogne district of Paris.
The museum repurposes a building that once housed the Museum of Arts and Folk Traditions, which closed in 2005.
The collection is rich in postwar and contemporary art and includes outstanding artists such as Damien Hirst, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol.
For the museum's opening ceremony, artist Sarah Morris created a film about Frank Gehry's architecture.
A Major Retrospective of Modern Art
In 2018, the Museum of Modern Art in New York loaned the Louis Vuitton Foundation over 200 works (including works by Paul Cézanne, Marcel Duchamp, and Yvonne Rainer) for a blockbuster exhibition that drew over 750,000 visitors. In the same year, the museum also held highly acclaimed retrospectives of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Egon Schiele.
Relationship with François Pinault
Arnault has a well-known competitive relationship with François Pinault, Chairman of Kering, which also owns the luxury brands Gucci and Balenciaga, and Chairman of Christie's, the world's largest auction house.
The two have been at loggerheads for years, engaging in multiple conflicts in both the art and business worlds in what has been dubbed the "handbag wars.
In 2008, Pinault outbid Sotheby's for two works by 20th century French artist Yves Klein; in 2018, fashion designer Stella McCartney announced she was parting ways with Pinault's conglomerate, Kering, followed in July 2019, McCartney revealed that she had signed a deal to join LVMH.
And they are also competitive about their support for the catastrophic fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in April of this year. Pinault and his team announced a donation of 100 million euros ($113 million) to rebuild the temple, and a few hours later, Arnault and LVMH announced a contribution of 200 million euros ($226 million) for the cathedral's reconstruction.
This is a very clear example of the competitive relationship between the two.
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