Collecting Books

Great Collectors of Our Time is the first major survey of contemporary collecting and collectors since Douglas Cooper's Great Private Collections, published in 1963. It examines many of the greatest collectors of our time in Europe, North America and the Far East, and follows their tastes - whether in the ...more

In 1931, at age 24, Norton Simon invested $7,000 in a bankrupt juice bottling plant. This investment grew into Hunt Foods, which soon ruled California's canned tomatoes empire. With a rare ability to transform laggard companies into highly profitable enterprises, Simon went on to amass a huge fortune. Then, in ...more

"The desire to surround ourselves with things that comfort, please, or excite our sensibilities is a common human trait. We're a collecting species. But we're also an aesthetic species. We respond to beauty, creativity, and originality. Put those sensibilities together and you have the makings of an art collector." --Paige ...more

An extraordinary treasure trove of fabulous necklaces, bracelets, rings, brooches, and earrings owned by the rich and famous. For many centuries the collecting of precious gems and the jewelry fashioned from them was the exclusive prerogative of kings and queens, emperors, popes, and maharajahs. But in the last hundred years ...more

Remarkable and riveting, this fascinating and scholarly "biography" of a van Gogh masterpiece illuminates the dynamics of the art market and of culture in our time. 8-page photo insert. ...more

Delving into one of the most sacrosanct areas of culture--fine art collecting--Thomas Hoving presents a gallery of art fakes, fakers, and the suckers who fell for the scams. From the shroud of Turin to pre-Colombian pottery, Hoving reveals the biggest, the best, the most embarrassing, and the most costly forgeries ...more

How did the United States become not only the leading contemporary art scene in the world, but also the leading market for art? The answer has to do not only with the talents of American artists or even the size of the American economy, but also--and especially--the skills and entrepreneurship ...more

For four and a half decades, Etta and Claribel Cone roamed artists’ studios and art galleries in Europe, building one of the largest, most important art collections in the world. At one time, these two independently wealthy Jewish women from Baltimore received offers from virtually every prominent art museum in ...more

For more than 45 years, from the time they purchased Picasso's "The Dream" in 1941, Victor and Sally Ganz accumulated an eminent collection of 20th-century art. The colour reproductions in this book are accompanied by essays analyzing the Ganzes' vision and commitment to contemporary art. From the start of their ...more

From one of today's most influential art collectors and dealers: a lively, revealing, sometimes blasphemous, always knowing look into the world of art. Richard Feigen's fifty years in the art world have given him a unique perspective on its inhabitants and habits. He writes about the painters he has known ...more