When Money'$ Not Enough

Forget having a fat wallet. Collectors today require serious clout, and a dependable reputation to be allowed to get their hands on what truly matters.

About a decade ago, with the economy beginning to recover following the global financial meltdown, a budding art collector flew from New York to Art Basel Miami Beach to buy a painting. “In my head I was the dream person, the up-and-coming collector that they want,” he recalls. “I was a decent-sized collector but not well-known. Someone who would buy as a long-term investment.”

An admirer of the hyper-realist artist Karel Funk, the collector, armed with a budget of US$400,000, inquired at the 303 Gallery booth about buying one of Funk’s signature hooded-anorak paintings, then priced around US$40,000, “but of course there was no price on display”, he says. The gallerist’s curt response: “There are some in the Whitney you can go and look at.” Recalling the dismissal today, he says: “I now know that most of the art is spoken for before the fair and that it’s a game that it’s open to the public to buy.”

The gatekeepers of the high-powered contemporary art scene are an elite unit whose mission, it seems, is to deter the general public. Of course, this zealous exclusivity is not confined to the world of art. Across many categories of luxury objects or experiences, access to the most hotly contested trophies is restricted to a select few, and the conditions of entry are about more than money. You cannot walk into a Rolex dealership, a Chelsea power gallery or an Hermès boutique, ask for a Daytona, a Jeff Koons or a Birkin and expect to be allowed to buy it.