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vibrant canvas painted by Pablo Picasso in 1955.
It was the most anyone had ever paid for a single work of art at an auction.
Though we don't know who the buyer was, only a select group of people could reasonably afford
such a splurge. As a recent New York Times article points out, if you assume no one would spend
more than 1% of their net worth on a piece of art, the buyer
would need to have a fortune of at least $17.9 billion.
bill gatesSean Gallup / GettyMicrosoft cofounder Bill Gates has a net worth of $79.2 billion.
Many of today's wealthiest people have made their fortunes in tech. Bill Gates, Larry Ellison,
and Paul Allen are all tech moguls ranking in the top 50 of Forbes' billionaire list. They
are also all known to have extensive art collections worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ellison, for example, has a collection of Japanese art and artifacts that reportedly contains
as many as 500 pieces.
Gates, on the other hand, paid $36 million for Winslow Homer's "Lost on the Grand Banks" in
1998. The painting hangs on a wall outside of his library, near another piece of art, Childe
Hassam's "Room of Flowers," that's worth at least $20 million.
lost on the grand banks winslow homerP. S. Burton / Wikimedia CommonsWinslow Homer's "Lost on
the Grand Banks," purchased for $36 million by Bill Gates.
Getting a new generation involved
Local galleries are hoping that the new, younger generation of tech executives follow in the
footsteps of Gates and Ellison and turn their attention toward the fine arts.
A recent Wealth-X report showed that California has more ultra high net worth individuals —
defined as people who have more than $30 million in assets — than any other state in the country.
5,460 of those people live in the San Francisco city limits.
Jessica Silverman first opened her own gallery in San Francisco in 2007. In 2013, she moved
the gallery to a 3,000-square-foot space in the Tenderloin, near tech companies like Twitter,
Zendesk, and One Kings Lane.
"We didn’t necessarily choose the Tenderloin for its proximity to companies like that,
but both technology and art are extremely entrepreneurial. Both are looking for competitive
real estate," Silverman told Business Insider. "San Francisco is
filled with venture capitalists who are known for having both personal and company
collections."
Opening nights at Silverman's gallery have drawn big tech figures like Instagram cofounder
Mike Krieger and Jawbone creator Yves Behar. She hopes people start looking at art
collecting as a form of philanthropy instead of as a status symbol.
"We’re going to see people who are not only buying art because they have bigger houses to
fill, but because they're thinking ahead to having a collection to donate," Silverman said.
"They’re really intelligent people, outside-of-the-box thinkers."
jessica silverman galleryCourtesy of Jessica Silverman GalleryInside the Jessica Silverman
Gallery.
Zlot Buell + Associates is an art advisory firm that has worked with a number of high-powered
executives in the Bay Area, including those who work in tech. Part of the firm's job is to
research the art market and keep clients informed on the
artists they should be adding to their collection. It also helps clients buy pieces
that aren't available on the primary art markets or in gallery shows.
Sabrina Buell, an advisor at the firm who is also married to Jawbone's Behar, says she
encourages clients to expose themselves to a wide variety of artists, ranging from those
whose careers are just emerging to those who have been popular for
decades.
"So much of contemporary art is about engaging with ideas at a given moment," Buell
said. "Tech is expressing what is contemporary. There’s real resonance in the business
world."
Art's high-tech backers
Some tech execs have already caught on to the trend. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Path
founder Dave Morin, and VC Jim Breyer all sit on the board at the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art, currently closed for renovations until 2016.
In the meantime, a group of organizers have put on the FOG Design + Art Fair, a
weekend of exhibits and workshops to benefit the SFMOMA.
According to Allison Speer, a member of the festival's steering committee, one of
the event's explicit goals was to get people in tech acquainted with art. Airbnb CEO
Brian Chesky, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, One Kings Lane CEO Ali Pincus,
Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman, and Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman are among those who have
served on FOG's committee.
This year, the committee will be honoring Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike
Krieger during a special innovators' luncheon.
"The idea was to engage the new tech community, to draw in their demographic and get
them involved," Speer said. "There are people who are very interested in art, but
they're doing it quietly."
Even some of the youngest tech moguls are beginning to see the value in collecting art.
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel recently hired high school friend and artist Wyatt Mills to
paint a mural outside the company's new headquarters in Venice, California.
"I took a tour of Snapchat and I noticed they had a lot of empty walls. Evan told me to
pick one," Mills told Business Insider. "Snapchat is an app that captures a moment in
time. This mural also captures a moment abstractly."
snapchat muralCourtesy of Wyatt Mills
Spiegel ended up buying some of Mills' pieces for himself, including an abstract
painting of a lion and another of a woman applying lipstick.
"I usually do shows, but I do commissions for people every once in awhile," Mills said.
"Evan refers a lot of people to me."
wyatt mills Courtesy of Wyatt Mills"Thing of the Jungle," by Wyatt Mills, owned by Snapchat
CEO Evan Spiegel.
wyatt mills artCourtesy of Wyatt Mills"Happily Ever After," by Wyatt Mills, owned by
Evan Spiegel.
Snapchat also hired Los Angeles-based street artist ThankYouX to do 13 pieces for the
company's headquarters. Each of the bright blue, red, and yellow paintings shows a public
figure through a cellphone screen, as if they were taking a
selfie. He's also done a graffiti-style portrait of Steve Jobs as a gift for Spiegel.
ThankYouX, whose given name is Ryan Wilson, met Spiegel through Paramount's Amy Powell.
evan spiegel thankyouxCourtesy of ThankYouX
"Evan gave me a tour of the place and we just hung out for about an hour talking about
art, tech, music, etc.," Wilson said. "A few months later they moved to bigger offices
and Evan asked if I would want to do art for the offices. From there
they started growing more and getting more offices."
"It's insane to see how much this company has grown, and I'm honored to be a small
piece of the story."
For some artists who work closely with startups, there's a lot of money to be made.
Wilson declined to say how Snapchat compensated him for his work, but it's possible
he received stock options. If he did, those early Snapchat options would likely be
worth millions today.
Facebook famously compensated graffiti artist David Choe with about 3.77 million
shares after he painted a set of murals at the company's first offices in Palo Alto.
He made about $200 million when Facebook went public in 2012.
Picassos, Ferraris or both?
Despite the efforts of gallery owners like Silverman and festivals like FOG, some
are skeptical that newly-minted tech billionaires will choose art collecting over a
vacation home or a sports car.
Former Apple exec Jeff Dauber is known for his extensive art collection. Several
times a year, he invites groups of people over to his San Francisco home, which
has become a sort of art museum in itself.
"I consider it a success if I convert one person to art collecting a year," Dauber said
to Business Insider. "The tech boom has brought a lot of money in, but if you didn’t
grow up seeing art, spending $10,000 to half a million dollars on one piece
can be really intimidating."
jeff dauber collectionCourtesy of Dauber Collection"Legacy," a piece by Travis Somerville
in Dauber's collection.
Part of the problem is that the San Francisco gallery scene has been forced to stay
relatively small, due in park to skyrocketing real estate costs.
"Many local galleries have had to close their doors due to the higher rents directly
associated with the tech boom," Micah Lebrun, curator at 111 Minna Gallery, said to
Business Insider. "And many tech companies are literally the new
occupants to the galleries being pushed out."
Dauber added, "You're less likely to stumble in and discover art here."
An even bigger problem, though, may be the way the arts are taught in school. Most
engineering students never have to take a single art class growing up.
"People who know great design don't necessarily collect art. I know more people
who have Ferraris than collect art — what they do to award themselves is buy a
sports car," Dauber said. "Art is beautiful, but it has no use. Many people in
tech are more interested in the functionality of things."
For some wealthy tech executives, there's no choice to make. Apple's senior vice
president Eddy Cue sits on the board of Ferrari.
And for people like Spiegel, there's room for both art and a Ferrari at his pad.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-billionaires-choose-picassos-over-ferraris-2015-6#ixzz3cg2CtaVv
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