Who are the patrons of contemporary art today? by Andrea Fraser From Adbusters #100: Are We Happy Yet? .artBox { float:right; margin:8px 0 8px 8px; width:250px; text-align:center; color: #333; } .artBox img { width:250px; } .artBox p { margin: 2px; } .artBox .price { color: #000; font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold; } Who are the patrons of contemporary art today? The ARTnews 200 Top Collectors list is an obvious place to start. Near the top of the alphabetical list is Roman Abramovich, estimated by Forbes to be worth $13.4 billion. He has admitted to paying billions in bribes for control of Russian oil and aluminum assets. Bernard Arnault, listed by Forbes as the fourth richest man in the world with $41 billion, controls the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which, despite the debt crisis, reported a sales growth of 13 percent in the first half of 2011. Hedge fund manager John Arnold, who got his start at Enron–where he received an $8 million bonus just before it collapsed–recently gave... - Adbusters Magazine