Martin Margulies is one of the most famous private collectors who rein the Miami art scenario. His voluminous warehouse and exhibition space prove that he has been there before it all began. He has been active in the market before art became an asset class. If Mr.Margulies decides to sell some of the 4000 pieces he has amassed over 30 years, he would make a whopping huge amount of money. He is already a wealthy real-estate developer whose collection boasts of Kooning, Eliasson, Flavin, Noguchi, Segal, and Serra.
Martin Margulies treats Art as His One True Passion
What Martin Margulies has for art can be best described in one word, passion. The man has devoted a section of his life to art. He is so much engrossed with his art that he exactly remembers where, when and why he got every piece he owns. This includes paintings as old as 1939 Miró constellation which he bought from Marcel Duchamp’s widow in 1980 to the granite blocks by Giovanni Anselmo that he bought in October for his Key Biscayne, Fla., apartment at a London auction. He justifies the latter with a childlike zeal. “I’m so excited about it. People — if they see six rocks hanging on my wall, they’re going to say, the guy’s nuts”, says Mr. Margulies of Anselmo.
Mr. Margulies is part of the clan that makes the Miami Art scene rich and robust. His other contemporaries include Norman Braman, Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, Donald and Mera Rubell and Ella Fontanals-Cisneros. The man has so much love for art that one can literally say that he is married to it. He loves to look at the artworks he has bought over the years. He is infatuated by the marvel of colors on the canvas. So much that he has never had a successful marriage. It seems that this is the reason behind him going through two divorces. He values his collection extensively and has no intention of selling any of it. He has been offered good amount of money for his widely coveted holdings including Lichtenstein’s four Picasso parodies. But he refused all the offers. Money does not drive his passion but his love does.
Stays At Top But Won’t Change
Mr. David Leiber, director at the David Zwirner Gallery and being someone who knows Mr. Martin Margulies since 25 years says, “He lives and breathes art. From Pop through to the present, he’s put together a kind of unrivaled collection”. The man is as complex as his choices. He refuses to mention his age and prefers to keep it a secret. He describes himself as someone who is not easy to be around. He has consistently been a part of top 200 collectors in the world by ARTnews but always has been scrutinized. Mr. Martin Margulies is not your regular art connoisseur. His dressing and forthright warmth shatters the conventional image and that is what makes him unique.
His most unique trait remains in the fact that he never sells any of his artwork. He does not want to part with any of his artwork and is a collector who is disgusted by the way money is driving the art world. Martin says that he finds the trait absurd. “It benefited me financially, but I don’t sell. A lot of those hedge fund guys have art advisers who say, ‘Buy this for $30 million,’ and they say ‘Sure, I make that in four hours, but I just don’t relate to that stuff. If they want to talk business, let them talk business with somebody else”, says Martin.
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