Hedge Fund Investor Kenneth Griffin Strikes Record Art Deal
Kenneth Griffin, founder of the billion-dollar investment firm Citadel, made a historic art purchase this week, paying $200 million for "17A," a 1948 Jackson Pollock painting, and $300 million for "Interchange," a 1955 Willem de Koonig painting.
According to CNN, the paintings were bought from David Geffen, the entertainment mogul whose hefty $100 million donation to Lincoln Center earned him his own music hall and who also co-founded DreamWorks alongside Steven Spielberg. Both "Interchange" and "17A" will be on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, where Griffin is on the board of trustees.
The $300 million purchase of Koonig's "Interchange" matched last year's record purchase of "When Will You Marry?", an 1892 portrait by Paul Gauguin. This is not Griffin's first venture into the world of art. The New York Times reports that in December of 2015, he donated $40 million to the Museum of Modern Art, one of the museum's largest donations in its history.
This enormous $500 million deal establishes Griffin in the ranks of various other billionaire art collectors including hedge-fund manager Steven A. Cohen, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and The Gap founder Doris F. Fisher.
