If you’ve got the resources, collecting art can be a great joy. If you’re one of the Henry Clay Fricks of the world, you might amass three of the world’s 37 known Johannes Vermeer paintings, along with Rembrandts, Gainsboroughs, Ingres, and much more, in your Fifth Avenue mansion.
Even people of modest means can become legendary art patrons: think of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, a librarian and a mail clerk who built one of the most important collections of their day, jamming all 5,000 works by the likes of Christo, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt into their rent-controlled New York apartment.
What all collectors have in common, no matter their means, is that they all started out buying their first piece at some point, and they likely made some mistakes along the way. Mistakes, after all, are a great way to learn.
Here, in part one of a two-part series, some international collectors (and collecting couples) reveal some of the pointers they would offer to their younger selves if they had it all to do over again—and even reveal a few of those mistakes made along the way.
Diana Bowes
Diana Bowes with works by Karla Knight, Howardena Pindell, and Elisabetta Zangrandi.
Board chair since 2021 of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Diana Bowes has built a collection of works by artists including Harmony Hammond, Loie Hollowell, Karla Knight, Arlene Shechet, and Chiffon Thomas. In January, she gave the Aldrich $1 million to endow the chief curator position, occupied by Amy Smith-Stewart, for the next 10 years.
I didn’t really start collecting until my mid-40s, but that’s a good thing because first I spent a lot of time looking. The first thing I ever bought with my own eye was in 2006. I went to Art Basel and bought three small pieces by the Japanese artist Atsushi Kaga from the gallery Mother’s Tankstation, in Dublin.
Back then it was more analog, which was nice. It’s so much faster now, and younger people have more money, tech money and so on. Even now, if you see something on Instagram, you can make such big mistakes buying things online. You really have to see the work!
Go to galleries and ask questions, no matter how stupid. A gallerist is never going to say, “That’s a stupid question.” I’ve learned a lot from gallerists. They get to know you and they suggest things. Sometimes smaller galleries will give you the time. At larger galleries you’re sent into voicemail hell because they’re finding out your credentials.
One thing I know now is that the enemy of a personal collection is water, including a humidifier, and young children. Never put an unprotected canvas in a trafficked area. And if there’s work being done on your home and you’re not there, don’t trust anybody. Make sure the work is under plastic. Life happens and accidents happen, but still, thinking about damage done to artworks in those situations makes me nauseous.
And don’t trust a house painter. A house painter once offered to touch up an Ann Craven painting.
Mana Jalalian
Courtesy Mana Jalalian.
Over nearly two decades, interior designer Mana Jalalian has amassed a collection of more than 400 works in various mediums by prominent Iranian artists such as Reza Derakshani, Mohamed Ehsai, Farideh Lashai, Bahman Mohasses, Sohrab Sepehri, Parviz Tanavoli, and Charles Hossein Zenderoudi. Born in Canada and raised in Iran, she is based in Dubai.
If I could give advice to my younger self, I would say: Follow your instincts, but always keep learning. I studied art history, graphic design, and interior design, so I’ve always had an eye for visual detail. That helped me recognize beauty and balance in artworks. But what really shaped me was spending time in galleries and museums, seeing a wide range of art in person. Over time, that experience trained my eye and deepened my understanding.
I was also fortunate to work with a great art advisor early on. They helped me look beyond the surface—encouraging me to consider the meaning of a piece, the artist’s story, and how it fit into the bigger picture of a collection. That guidance made a big difference and helped me make more thoughtful choices.
I’ve collected through artists directly, through galleries, and at auctions. Each path has something to offer. Buying directly from artists can be incredibly meaningful. Working with galleries and advisors provides insight and context. Auctions are exciting, but require preparation and a solid understanding of the market.
Of course, I’ve made mistakes—buying pieces that didn’t feel right later or following trends instead of trusting my own taste. But those experiences taught me something valuable: always collect what truly moves you. Don’t buy based on what’s popular or expected. The best collections are personal—they reflect who you are, what you love, and how your vision evolves over time.
Pamela Joyner
Pamela Joyner. Photo: Drew Altizer.
With her husband, Alfred J. Giuffrida, San Francisco collector Pamela J. Joyner, founding partner of investment firm Avid Partners, has developed a collection with the goal of re-writing art history to account for those who were historically left out of the story, focusing on African American artists. Their collection spans historical and contemporary artists including Firelei Báez, Kevin Beasley, Mark Bradford, Leonardo Drew, Charles Gaines, Isaac Julien, Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Shinique Smith, Jack Whitten, and William T. Williams.
She has served on the boards of institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2020, Joyner helped to form the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums in an effort to diversify the makeup of museum administrations and boards. In 2021, the couple donated 31 works to SFMOMA, including examples by Elizabeth Catlett, Beauford Delaney, Lois Mailou Jones, Norman Lewis, and Richard Mayhew.
In a way, the most important part of the Joyner-Giuffrida collection is the book collection. I didn’t realize how important until we branched out to collect Afro-Brazilian artists and started collecting books on them, but guess what? They’re all in Portuguese! With the books, you educate yourself, and then you educate your eye by going and seeing a lot of art.
I almost never introduce a living artist to the collection without doing a studio visit. It’s really important to hear from the maker their life story and what their practice is about. Some would say that impairs your objectivity, but I’m not trying to be objective. I’m trying to pick out the best in class. And as we’ve learned from running a residency program, artists really do enhance one’s life.
It is important to work with artists who are really dedicated to the core of the career. It’s easy to get distracted, so you have to be able to discern whether what they’re doing is distraction or core. If the artist is a painter, working in film might not seem like a core project, but for example Alteronce Gumby recently went around the world exploring color. It was perfect for him, but there are other things that can be a distraction and can undermine careers.
Something I wish I had known earlier is how important each of the key constituents in the ecosystem is. We’re all interconnected.
People are quick to criticize gallerists, but if they’re good, they know the most about their artists. And they’re the allocators of the masterpieces, so it’s in one’s best interest to have cordial relationships with them. Certainly there are boundaries, but I believe that it’s better to have a collaborative relationship with every key part of the ecosystem—and that includes other collectors. I talk to other collectors all the time.
Given our goals, which are to try to make sure those who have been overlooked have a shot at being canonical, you have to have great working relationships with great museums. We’re very active lenders. I’m particularly anxious to lend work by emerging artists in our collection because that’s what gets them visibility. Once I own an artist’s works, I’m a steward of their career. Museums are storehouses of all kinds of expertise and information, but they don’t know everything. While they are a lot more knowledgeable than they were 20 years ago, everybody is learning all the time. They call attention to our artists and I have had the opportunity to do the opposite. That’s part of that stewardship.
There have been calls for institutions to reevaluate themselves, but at the end of the day they are the best platform we have for recording the best of human creativity, so it is really important to support institutions. One thing my younger self would have loved to know is how important it is to have a museum affiliation early on. If you’re a 25-year-old collector, find a 25-year-old curatorial assistant and grow with them as their career grows. Young curators need more support for their projects than anybody. This whole exercise is a series of developing relationships, so what better to do than learn from a young curator whose work you might have the capacity to support?
Elie Khouri
Elie Khouri.
Lebanese-French chairman of the Omnicom Media Group and founder of Dubai investment firm Vivium Holding, Elie Khouri has collected since the late 2000s and collects work from artists including Carol Bove, Gunther Förg, and Dana Schutz, per ARTnews. He has served on Tate’s Middle East and North Africa acquisitions committee and the Museum of Modern Art’s media and performance committee.
Before you jump into buying, train your eye. Go to galleries and museums for years and try to assess what’s good and bad. It takes time. And when you start buying, definitely don’t follow trends. Follow what resonates with you. Work with galleries that know what they’re doing, that work with artists, that are training artists, educating them, improving their skills. Don’t rush into buying things. There’s always a better work or something you can buy later. These are the key elements, but the first one is train, train, train your eye. Buy the artist’s best work. Don’’t compromise.
I’ve had a few sleepless nights over the many artworks that got away and that I regretted not buying, but there are so many things you can love and live with that you won’t have enough money to buy them all! Unless you’re Elon Musk.
A collecting practice evolves. Early on, you might buy more from artists through studio visits. Then, or at the same time, you buy from galleries. As you become more experienced, you might bring on an advisor and buy from auctions and on the secondary market at auction houses because you know how to assess the work. When buying at auction, though, there is an element of impulsiveness and the question of when to stop bidding. You need to be more experienced to collect that way.
Never buy from just random galleries on the street. You can easily do your research online and on social media to find the best galleries. There’s also word of mouth. Talk to established collectors. It’s galleries’ job to select the best work that is out there. Find the gallery whose program talks to you.
Naturally, you make mistakes. In the early days I made mistakes buying from random galleries without doing any research. I learned to get rid of those works early on. Those are two errors: buying bad work and rushing to buy a particular artist just because of the name or the brand and not because of the work itself. You have to be patient and buy the right work.
Nancy Lerner and David Frej
The home of Nancy Lerner and David Frej, with works, left to right, by Marina Perez Simão, Ulala Imai, and Paulina Olowska.
Avid collectors for over 35 years, Chicago branding and design consultants Nancy Lerner and David Frej have bought in various categories, including Teco pottery, Chicago modernists, and contemporary artists like Carol Bove, Theaster Gates, Shara Hughes, Ulala Imai, Rashid Johnson, Guillermo Kuitca, Shio Kusaka, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Catherine Opie, Pope.L, Pinaree Sanpitak, Marina Perez Simão, Tschabalala Self, Amy Sherald, Henry Taylor, Matthew Wong, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Lerner is on the board of Chicago’s Renaissance Society, and the couple is active with Windy City institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the DePaul Art Museum.
The advice we would give to our younger selves is the same advice we still follow:
Look at A LOT, including artists and work that others have overlooked.
Be curious, and don’t be afraid of doing things differently than your peers.
Buy what you love.
Buy what you can afford.
Be patient.
Don’t get caught up in what appears to be a hot artist as validated through ever-increasing auction results. A time or two we have chased work and have learned it means we have lost sight of what truly interests us. In a few cases we’ve overspent—a mistake that every collector has made.
Listen to other collectors but make your own way.
We occasionally share images of work we are interested in acquiring to a curator whose perspective and eye we respect, asking, “what do you think about this work in the context of the artist’s practice?” This has always been helpful.
Figure out how the system works and hold others accountable for doing the same.
Get out into the world, Visit artists. Go to galleries, art fairs and museums. Travel.
Don’t acquire work without seeing it in person. If it’s on the other side of the world, it might just not make it into our collection, or we might get on a plane to the other side of the world! This is important to us. It’s a very consistent principle of ours. It’s so easy to be lured by digital files, Instagram and videos. For us, it takes some of the magic out of the process if we can’t see it. It’s changed our minds many times, to the better and to the worse.
Meet the artists whose work you buy as often as you can.
Enjoy the journey. Enjoy the hunt. Stay open to what’s new.
Acquire the best work by an artist you can, and don’t settle.
Don’t get caught up in the machinations of a gallery’s program; stay focused on the artist(s) whose work you love.
Don’t acquire art with the mindset of an investor. Assume that what you buy today is going to be worth less, in terms of currency, tomorrow.
Astrid Hill Lloyd
Astrid Hill Lloyd. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo.
New York art advisor Astrid Hill Lloyd has over two decades built a collection that includes artists like Jordan Casteel, Sarah Crowner, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Sam Moyer, Lauren Quin, and Charline von Heyl. She’s a member of the board of trustees at the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, New York, and sits on the education committee of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She is also a founding member of the Vanguard Council at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, a member of Independent Curators International (ICI), and chair emeritus of the Apollo Circle at the Metropolitan Museum.
The most important thing is to be in the flow of the art world. By that I mean: do studio visits, visit galleries both in New York and elsewhere, go to art fairs both big and small—where you can find overlooked artists—and go to museum shows. Most importantly, ask questions about works and artists. You do not have to be born into it—gallerists and artists welcome the opportunity to share more about their work, and to learn about your own eye and passions. Go to the free and public artist talks hosted by galleries. Introduce yourself to gallerists. And when you do a studio visit, never come empty-handed!
For those just getting into collecting, it may be advantageous to work with an art advisor, who can guide you through the process and help you develop relationships. As you get further into your collecting journey, these relationships will develop naturally and become your own. Becoming an art collector takes time and research, as you need to both build your network as well as develop your taste.
I grew up with art all over the walls of where we lived, and I always knew to never touch the work. This informed my view of how I decorated my apartment with my collection. But now that my husband and I have a two-year-old son running around and a newborn, I have a different viewpoint. I’ve had to completely rethink the collection and put some paintings higher up or out of reach, some under glass, and others in storage until my children are old enough to understand. Let’s just say my son loves to touch the walls of our apartment and I’ve had to put work in harder to reach places.