Businessman Grant Cardone said collecting and displaying art gives him more satisfaction than investing.
grant cardone
Billionaire Grant Cardone, who has been collecting art for about 15 years, says he is a spontaneous buyer.
"I don't consider myself a connoisseur. I'm very new to the art world. If I like it, I buy it. I don't care who made it," he told CNBC. In addition to the pieces displayed throughout his home, Cardone also has an art gallery to house his considerable collection.
CNBC spoke to Cardone via video call: Behind him in his home office in Miami was an untitled piece by American graffiti artist Retna that Cardone bought at an online auction.
"I clicked the button; I hadn't really done any research... and I got the piece... And it came here and I loved it," he said. He paid "maybe $140,000" for the job, she said.
A piece called "It's Now Time," by Fringe artist, seen in the gallery of Grant Cardone's home.
grant cardone
Along a hallway in Cardone's home are two pieces by American pop artist Burton Morris, both featuring red Coca-Cola bottles lined up in a repeating pattern called Coca-Cola 50A and Coca-Cola 50B. "I bought this from Tommy Hilfiger...it reminds me of the importance of climbing," Cardone said: fashion designer Hilfiger is the previous owner of the house.
Cardรณn, a real estate investor and author of "The 10
"[Followers are] starting to see art that says, hey, you know, [has] Has that been good for you? And I say, yes, it's good for me... It's better than the dollar or the euro... The stock market doesn't give me any satisfaction, I don't go back and look at my Apple Share and feel good about it. But I walk in my gallery or my kitchen or my office and I see a piece and I think, man, that's super cool."
The gallery in Grant Cardone's house in Miami. At the bottom left you can see a copy of a piece by Basquiat.
grant cardone
Inside Cardone's gallery, complete with floor-to-ceiling windows and a security guard, is a work by American contemporary artist Kenny Scharf titled "Blipsibshabshok" (1997), an abstract painting featuring colorful futuristic symbols. Cardone owns a second Scharf, "Controlopuss" (2018), a striking image of a red, many-legged creature, and acquired it for $279,400 at an auction house. Phillips.
"This is a Basquiat right here. The original would cost $45 million," Cardone said, pointing to a copy of a Jean-Michel Basquiat piece titled "Flexible" (1984/2016). The original was sold by an auction house. Phillips for $45.3 million in 2018. "I bought this piece at the house," he said, pointing to a work above the Basquiat titled "Read More" by American contemporary artist Al-Baseer Holly.
Grant said he chooses pieces to buy out of instinct. "I'll try to stay away from it. And if I keep seeing it, or I keep thinking about it, then I go back and say, 'Okay, I'm supposed to have this,'" he said.
"I plan on never selling any of this. It's really for my personal enjoyment. And you know, art makes me happy," he said.
Feminine art in Florence
Former investment banker Christian Levett has a different approach. He has been collecting art for almost 30 years, starting with Old Master paintings and Roman, Greek and Egyptian antiquities before moving on to pieces by abstract expressionist women.
Art collector Christian Levett conducts private tours of his home in Florence, Italy. His collection is largely made up of abstract expressionist works by female artists.
Christian Levett
In addition to owning an art museum in Mougins, France, Levett gives tours of the artwork on the walls of his home in Florence, Italy, where he lives for six months of the year; You could say that his entire house is an art gallery. "It's kind of a private tour museum," Levett told CNBC by phone.
Near the city's famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, Levett's home has 20-foot-high ceilings, original frescoes and two floors of art, all the work of women. The collection is largely made up of abstract expressionist works by artists such as impressionist Mary Cassatt and surrealist Dorothea Tanning.
Once or twice a week, Levett invites small groups to view his collection and often conducts tours himself. The groups are sometimes made up of students from American universities based in Florence, such as Harvard University and New York University, or come from museums or patron groups.
A 1977 painting by American artist Joan Mitchell is the highlight of Levett's collection, he said. The great piece, titled "When did they leave", measures almost 240 cm high and 180 cm wide and is hanging in your dining room.
Levett acquired it for around $2.8 million around 2015.
Christian Levett has transitioned from collecting antiques to working with female artists, as seen here in his home in Florence.
Christian Levett
"Now it's probably a $15 to $18 million painting at auction... Mitchell has always been one of the most important painters of the 20th century.th century," Levett said.
He also praised an Elaine de Kooning oil painting of John F. Kennedy, commissioned as part of a series of portraits of the former US president in 1963. Levett purchased the artwork in 2020, paying around $600,000.
Levett said he opens his home to students in part because doing so might spark interest in supporting the arts in the future. "The students... are the acorns of the art world," she said.
The work of female artists is Levett's focus, and he is set to reopen his museum in France as the Female artists Mougin Museum The 21st of June. He is currently selling the museum's former collection of art and antiques through a series of Sales at Christie's auction house in London.which have reached almost ยฃ9.5 million ($11.9 million) so far.
bunker art
Christian and Karen Boros' home is atop the bunker that houses their private art collection, the Boros Collection, in central Berlin, Germany.
John Macdougall | AFP | fake images
In a unique art space in Berlin, married couple Christian and Karen Boros live in a 6,000-square-foot penthouse above their private collection. He Boros Collection is located in a former World War II bunker, a massive high-rise building that the couple acquired in 2003 and spent several years converting into a five-story exhibition space, with their home on the sixth.
The bunker housed up to 4,000 people during the war, after which it was used as a tropical fruit warehouse before being converted into a nightclub. According to Raoul Zoellner, director of the Boros Foundation, 450 tons of concrete ceilings and walls were removed during its conversion into an exhibition space and home.
An artwork by Cyprien titled "Gaillard Lesser Koa Moorhen", 2013, part of the Boros Collection.
Boros Collection, Berlin | Not her
Christian, an advertising businessman, bought his first work of art, a shovel by German artist Joseph Beuys, when he was 18, he told the newspaper. Financial times.
"The bunker is not a museum... but an exceptional project initiated by a couple of enthusiastic collectors who could not have imagined how many diamond saws it would take to knock down dozens of bunker walls, or what that would set in motion," he said Zoellner in an emailed statement.
Karen and Christian Boros live in an attic above their art collection in Berlin.
Max von Gumpenberg
Nearly 600,000 people have taken guided tours of the bunker since its conversion in 2008, with pieces from the Boros Collection displayed in rotation, Zoellner added. Currently you can see 114 works, "centered on the human body in multiple positions," Zoellner explained. "The works focus on the constant compulsion to optimize, the gradual adaptation of our body to technological devices," she said.
