OF ART AND PILOT FISH | July 20th 2008

They may be narcissists or immortality-seekers, or perhaps they've simply "caught the bug". Art collectors make for a rare breed of wealthy consumers. Art.view takes a closer look ...

From ECONOMIST.COM

James Stourton, the chairman of Sotheby's UK, is a tall, stooping man with a faintly academic air about him who manages to make his work his play. He collects collectors; indeed he has written the book about them. For a series about collecting, Mr Stourton's office in New Bond Street is the place to start.

He starts at the beginning. Collectors often get going with a stamp collection when they are children. Books are another common trigger. "A lot start with a coup de foudre. They see something that speaks to them, and eventually the intellectual process takes over," he says.

Historical patterns of collecting follow the money. The story of the past 100 years begins with the Russian merchants who collected painters like Matisse and Picasso before they became famous: "A collector is buying a generation ahead of his time," writes Mr Stourton. The excitement in the market place moved to America in the 1920s, helped by generous tax incentives. Greek ship-owners took over in the 1950s, and the Japanese in the 1970s. Now the balance of buying power is shifting to the East, to Arabia, Russia and China.

Mr Stourton notes that in the 17th and 18th centuries collectors tended to be people who did not have children. At the end of the 19th century, inspired dealers realised that there was a great deal of art in Europe and a great deal of money in America, and the marriage between the barons of capitalism and the market for Old Masters was consummated. "A lot of people still buy for their sitting rooms, but I think the world has shifted. Nearly every serious collector is buying with public exhibition in mind," says Mr Stourton. The names trip off his tongue: Charles Saatchi, Francois Pinault, Dakis Joannou in Athens, and Baron Ullens in Beijing.

But one simple motive inspires virtually every great collector who puts his paintings on display. The first properly public museum was opened in Oxford in 1683, based on the collection of Elias Ashmole (pictured). Since it was named the Ashmolean, Ashmole's name will live for as long as there is a university in Oxford. Lord Duveen, dealer in art to the robber barons, having persuaded them that an art collection bought social status, profited from what he called "a brisk market in immortality".

The present-day collectors who intrigue Mr Stourton are wealthy American businessmen such as Henry Kravis and Ronald Lauder. He distinguishes between them and earlier American collectors like Paul Mellon, who concentrated on a fabulous collection of British paintings. "Mr Kravis and Mr Lauder like variety," says Mr Stourton. "It's fascinating. We only have a glimmer of what they've got. Mr Lauder collects medieval art as well as Klimt. They're highly intelligent and very serious but they remain private collectors until they're ready to reveal themselves."

Fashions change. Impressionists have become the preoccupation of an older generation. Names that ring loudest now are Bacon, Koons and Freud. Arabs such as the al-Thanis of Qatar pay record prices for the abstract expressionism of Mark Rothko. But the reactions of the best collectors do not change. Prices rise sharply, but they do not resist the trend. "Sometimes you have to buy out of the box and pay out of the box." But that's the collector: "They are the pilot fish of taste," says Mr Stourton.

(The Art.view column appears every week on Economist.com.)