Koons Collector: Eli Broad
By Jessica L. Darraby
Eli Broad and Jeff Koons might seem a strange couple. Broad is a philanthropist, collector and financier who galvanizes the arts in the traditionally conservative world of bankers and corporations. Koons is a maverick artist and former Madison Avenue marketing guru who manages to incite critical furor and, more recently, public acclaim for his monumental public art and extreme appropriation of an art-as-commodity concept in a post-Warhol era. But collector and artist have more in common than their artist/collector relationship might suggest: they are both shrewd businessmen with uncanny acumen for tracking the art markets, anticipating trends and, most importantly, initiating developments.
In 1984, Eli and wife Edythe formed the Broad Art Foundation, the single largest collection of Jeff Koons artworks in the world. “We had more artworks than we could possibly display,†explains Broad, seated in his corporate offices in Westwood. “The art foundation was a way to share important works with museums, other institutions and the public.†Presently, the foundation has made more than 100 loans of Koons artworks to more than 30 institutions in ten countries. Read the rest of this entry »
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