«GOOD BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART»

Andrew Ong, an architectural designer based in New York, has discovered up-and-comers by seeking out art that challenges him. When he began collecting in the 1980s, he coveted sculpture by established minimalist artists Dan Flavin and Donald Judd that he couldn’t afford.Instead, he bought one of four identical stainless-steel sculptures titled “Fisherman Golfer” by a relative unknown named Jeff Koons at a Los Angeles gallery for $15,000 in 1986. In May of this year, another of the sculptures, which ended up in the collection of the late best-selling author Michael Crichton, fetched $434,500 at Christie’s in New York.“I bought that Koons because it was really interesting and new,” Ong, 54, says. “It was the art of my generation.”
Ong has bought early works by Richard Prince and Felix Gonzalez-Torres for a fraction of what they would cost now. Ong’s advice to new collectors: Follow your eyes and ignore what’s fashionable at the moment.“To have a strong feeling about something -- loving or hating it -- that’s what I am looking for,” he says.

-Bloomberg
June 30 2010