«I LIKE MONEY ON THE WALL»

In the audience sat the men of the Mugrabi family — the patriarch Jose and his sons, Alberto and David — New York art dealers for whom the evening was not so much a transitional moment as simply another high-stakes day at the office. The Mugrabis own what is believed to be one of the largest and most valuable private collections of art in the world. By their estimate, it includes more than 3,000 works. They have built the collection over the past 25 years, since Jose, an Israeli-born fabric merchant who raised the family in Colombia, moved his wife, Mary, and their two sons to America and got into the art business full time.

The core of their collection is a staggering 800 works by Andy Warhol — “easily the biggest Warhol collection in the world after ours,” says Tom Sokolowski, the director of the vast Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh — and roughly 100 each by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tom Wesselmann and George Condo. At 69, Jose remains largely interested in artists with connections to the Pop movement.

New York Times
Feb 27 2009