Describe your collection in three words.
Minimal, restrained and distilled. I like works that possess the artist’s most essential elements. As a 21-year-old, my parents took me to an artist’s studio in Brooklyn to select a college graduation gift. It turned out to be Basquiat’s studio, and I chose a drawing that had a crown on it because he explained that it was his symbol.
What was your very first collection, maybe as a child or a teenager?
I’ve always had a passion for collecting. It started when I was very young with a penny collection. When I was in high school, I was a tomboy, so I started flipping baseball cards. On weekends, I would travel to conventions and teach myself which ones were important.
Why do you collect?
It comes from a desire to be surrounded by beautiful things and has transformed into wanting to create an environment for friends and family. I was an art history major, so I had a creative side and I loved spending summers going through the Paris flea markets. I dabbled in the furniture, but it wasn’t until I got married that I started doing it seriously. I’ve always been interested in art and design, but I feel like design has been put on the back seat by collectors and institutions. Collecting creates ever-evolving spaces. When you keep adding, it becomes a living narrative. Now I have art too, and it all makes a very good cocktail.
Does art play a role in your romantic relationship?
When I married my husband, Glenn, he asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said I would like to collect one painting together each year. The first painting was a white [Lucio] Fontana. My husband thought I was completely crazy, but I still look at it and have a visceral reaction. Arte Povera was always my favorite period.
Who is your collecting wingman?
It’s Glenn. I’m the one who drives the collection—I always say that he’s my finance partner—but I feel strongly that we should do it together. I challenge him, but I know that he gets as much pleasure from it as I do.
What artwork or object have you restored back to life?
It was a small seascape painting by [Gerhard] Richter. It had an imperfection that was barely visible to the naked eye. I couldn’t see it, but somehow Glenn uncovered it. So when we bought it, we had Richter sign off on touching it up—you don’t often have a living artist to be able to do that. It still bothered my husband, though, so we sold it about 15 years ago. We did very well, but we would have done even better if we had kept it. Now, when Glenn wants to sell something, I say, “Just remember the Richter, honey.”
Who is the most unjustly overlooked artist?
Félix González-Torres. He had a short career, but his art is still so relevant because it involves the viewer and deals with the fragility of life. During COVID-19, the gallerist Andrea Rosen arranged for around 400 participants to each exhibit his 1990 work “‘Untitled’ (Fortune Cookie Corner).” I was living in the Hamptons with my family at the time and was able to create a homage to González-Torres in my conservatory. I posted it on Instagram and people made appointments to come and see the work. Everyone got to go home with a fortune.
Favorite art fair and why?
I love Paris Design Week every September. A lot of design starts there.
Favorite curator and why?
I am obsessed with Hans Ulrich Obrist. He’s a genius, a true advocate for artists and he loves to connect people. He puts on incredible shows at the Serpentine Galleries in London.
What’s the piece that got away?
In 2015, a friend came to me who was trying to put together a group of people to buy a Gonzélez-Torres work made up of green candies wrapped in cellophane. The piece has interesting bylaws—it can be owned by more than one person, and it can be on display at more than one place at a time. I think there were nine of us and it was such a genius idea, so I was excited to participate. As we found out later, we were beaten at auction by [philanthropist and art patron] Alice Walton, so I don’t think we were even close.
What “tools of the trade” do you use to keep building your collection?
Auctions, galleries, connections—everything. And I just never know where things will end up. I bought a 13-foot Charlotte Perriand “Nuage” bookcase from Phillips years ago without having a place to put it because I’d never seen one that size before. It wasn’t until I moved into my current home that I installed it. When I was just married, I bought 40 beautiful panels of 18th-century parquet de Versailles flooring. I never wanted to install it in a home if it wasn’t my final destination, so I waited 25 years until I moved into where we live now.
Favorite work of architecture and why?
I love the softness of Tadao Ando’s concrete and the way he incorporates light and landscape into his designs. I was just at the Chichu Art Museum [in Japan], which I thought was incredible.
“My collection is minimal, restrained and distilled. I like works that possess the artist’s most essential elements.”
How has your taste changed through time?
My gallery in SoHo, Raisonné, is a relatively recent development in my collecting journey. I had a dealer friend who kept saying that I needed to meet this guy with a store in Brooklyn. I used to say: “Why would I go to Brooklyn if I could go to France to buy furniture?” That guy was Jeffrey Graetsch, Raisonné’s director, whom I now call my encyclopedia because of his knowledge of designers and where to find things. We decided that it was the right time to open a gallery because New York didn’t have a great design gallery. It’s filled with masters of furniture from the 20th and 21st centuries, alongside carefully curated art.
What was your wildest white-knuckle moment at auction?
I bought a Paul Dupré-Lafon coffee table a long time ago from Sotheby’s. There was a lot of fighting but it’s still one of my favorite pieces. But I’ve never bought anything live in an auction room. I prefer to be at home as I don’t like seeing who I’m bidding against. I have taken calls in crazy locations in order to get things though. I was once in the middle of an interview for my daughter’s high school admission and I stepped out to bid on a Jean Prouvé metal cabinet that I’d never seen at auction before.
What tips do you have for collectors just starting out?
Buy what you love. Even if it doesn’t appreciate in value, you will still love living with it.
Do you have a family heirloom, inherited or acquired, to pass on?
I have an heirloom for my kids. About 20 years ago, I went to the Whitney Biennial and became obsessed with a 12-foot letter “X” painting by Wade Guyton. It was minimal and sexy. At the time, he didn’t have a gallery, so it was hard to get in touch with him. Somehow, I got his phone number and he basically said: “OK, I’m going to call Home Depot and buy two pieces of wood, and I’m going to send the paint to your house, and I’ll build it in your yard and install it for you. $8,000.”
Favorite art-related book?
There’s a book about Maja Hoffmann’s collection called “This is the House that Jack Built.” Rirkrit Tiravanija did the custom font and the pictures are incredible.
Which collectors do you admire?
Emily Fisher Landau. I had the fortune of visiting her home in Palm Beach. She was also interested in design and art. People who bring both into their home and live with it make more interesting collectors for me.
