Fortune destined Tylee Abbott, vice president and specialist in Christie’s American Art Department, to be attuned to the art of the U.S. West. Abbott’s namesake ancestor, William Tylee Ranney, was a famed 19th-century artist known to paint everything from sporting to landscape art, including the...
Who would have thought that trading a Shar-Pei puppy for a piece of art would be the beginning of a lifetime pursuit? Howard Chambers, a breeder of the Chinese dogs, met a creative buyer who offered to trade a set of art prints for the...
Rusty Henderson is a man on a mission for art, a man whose passion for paintings is secondary only to his love for his children and grandchildren. Like the knights questing for the Holy Grail, like Ponce de León seeking the fabled Fountain of Youth,...
Dr. James Harken, a retired dentist in Spokane Valley, Washington, never dreamed of becoming an art collector. He spent his formative years in Cartersville, Montana, where his family lived without running water, indoor plumbing, or electricity. “My father became an attorney after putting himself through...
William G. Kerr was an adolescent when he first encountered fine art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and he’s been captivated with paintings and sculptures ever since. His early affinity for art has since touched the lives of many artists, art...
Imagine shopping for art at the world’s top galleries, studios, and auctions, funded by a philanthropic benefactor. Laura Finlay Smith is the curator of the Tia Collection, a global art holding with a diverse range of paintings, drawings, prints, photography, sculpture, ephemera, and mixed media....
If there were an award for “Happiest Collector,” chances are Tim Newton, chairman of the board of the Salmagundi Art Club in New York City, would be the top contender. Newton and his wife Cathi have amassed a collection of 350 artworks in 28 years. As...
First-generation immigrants, Jack and Rebecca Benaroya met at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. They fell in love, and for 70 years they lived and appreciated life in a grand way. With a laugh, Rebecca tells how her husband was conceived in Beirut and delivered...
For almost 35 years, Scot Levitt has been collecting, organizing, appraising, and selling art. His position at Bonhams Auction House, as vice president and director of fine arts in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, provides excitement and satisfaction, with fresh opportunities present every day....
For 46 years, Chris Webster’s office has been located above Lincoln Avenue, on the grassy Santa Fe Plaza. Up a flight of stairs, the office opens into a space designed to resemble an 18th-century hacienda. Navajo weavings, Spanish Colonial furniture, and a chapirito, (a fermentation jar from Peru) are placed...