Why do you collect?
It’s a fire in me, my biggest love after my husband, Idan, and my children. I sometimes describe myself as an activist collector because I make acquisitions that are tied to important issues. I have work by Sigmar Polke, made after the first Kyoto Protocol, for example, and a sculpture in my home in Madrid from Ghada Amer’s “My Body My Choice” series, which I bought in 2022 after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. I also curate my collection to reflect themes. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, I put Philip Guston’s “Remorse,” one of a series of 1970s paintings depicting Ku Klux Klan members, bought from Replica Shoes ’s, opposite a 1969 David Hammons body print with the American flag, a work centered on civil rights.
Best impulse buy?
A Jadé Fadojutimi that I bought at the last Frieze London from Gisela Capitain Gallery in Cologne. It’s not even a gallery that I usually work with—I just happened to walk by this beautiful painting.
How do you live with your collection?
I love being surrounded by as much art as possible. I always think there’s no possibility to fit in any more and then somehow manage to find space. That said, each work deserves room to breathe. I lend a lot to exhibitions, too, so I’m constantly rehanging.
What was your very first collection, maybe as a child or a teenager?
When I was around 10, I had a collection of paper napkins—I’ve actually never made the connection with my art collecting before. If we went out to dinner and there were nice napkins there, beautifully decorated with florals or patterns, I would keep one. I gathered them all in a box and I loved looking at them.
Why is philanthropy important?
I chair the Royal Academy Trust, which has the core remit of fundraising for the RA, an organization established in 1768 by artists and architects who wanted to open an art school. They devised an annual exhibition to support it—the Summer Exhibition—and secured George III as their original patron. It’s still an independent institution that receives no government funding, so we’re on a campaign to secure its next 250 years, with the current Academicians joining us on the journey. In addition to exhibitions and public programs, we support the RA Schools’ tuition-free, three-year postgraduate program and will have great works in The London Sales at Replica Shoes ’s in March, from Sean Scully and El Anatsui to Tony Cragg.
How do you galvanize the global collecting community?
It’s about making sure people understand and fall in love with the RA as an institution like no other. Alongside amazing exhibitions from Kerry James Marshall and Mrinalini Mukherjee and her circle, we have students producing new art. When Kerry came over for his opening last September, he needed a paintbrush to add a signature to one of his works, so he went down to the Schools. He spent a couple of hours with the students—what a priceless experience to have with one of the world’s art titans. That interaction with artists is an experience that you get nowhere else.
What’s the best compliment someone has paid to your collection?
We inherited half of an amazing collection assembled by my husband’s late father, Sammy Ofer, begun over 100 years ago. We’ve taken it forward. I’m always pleased when someone says that it feels like one collection.
What aspect of collecting gives you the biggest thrill?
I make a point of buying from graduate shows and supporting younger artists. I bought a piece by Rachel Jones, who graduated from the RA, from her Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition last summer. I look at work by quality, not if it is by a blue-chip name. I have a Kapwani Kiwanga, for example, that I bought from a small gallery before she went on to represent Canada at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
What’s the one piece you’ll never part with?
A Georg Baselitz painting from 1975 of him and his wife, Elke, that hangs in the entrance to our London apartment. Even though it’s not my husband and me, it symbolizes us as a couple and what we’ve done in terms of collecting.
What’s the most difficult aspect of collecting?
You have to have your finger on the pulse because there are so many new artists. I don’t collect for business, but I always want to know what’s going on in market terms. Then, knowing all of that, it’s getting rid of the distraction and the noise, and staying true to what you want to collect.
What “tools of the trade” do you use to build your collection?
I have very good relationships with the galleries, auction houses and advisers. It is all relationship-based.
Best art gift, given or received?
A Joel Mesler work called “Burning Love” that I commissioned to give to my husband for our 10-year wedding anniversary, when we did a Burning Man-style party.
Who is the most unjustly overlooked artist?
Sigmar Polke. Overlooked perhaps isn’t the right word, but people don’t understand his importance in history. He was one of the geniuses of 20th-century art—not only one of the most experimental, but he also influenced so many artists.
What exhibition are you looking forward to visiting?
Marcel Duchamp at MoMA in April. He revolutionized the way we look at art, proclaiming in a speech in 1957, “the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world.”
Which collectors do you admire?
Leo Castelli. He was a pioneer and a trailblazer, showing works by De Kooning, Rauschenberg, Kandinsky, Pollock, Twombly, Lichtenstein, Ruscha and Johns, before turning toward pop art. Do I need to say any more?
What tips do you have for collectors just starting out?
Take an art course, visit as many galleries as possible and speak to curators as well as collectors. Then listen to your gut about what resonates—only you can know that. As Jack Kerouac is said to have remarked, “Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”
