Rich people don’t always have good taste, but in the case of those old world tycoons, the drip is undeniable. In a viral TikTok, comedian Dan Rosen shared the ultimate travel hack for art lovers: “When you’re in a new city, skip the major museum and go straight to the private collection of a very evil dude,” he says. Examples of such problematic yet impressive institutions include: the Morgan Library in New York City; the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid; and Hearst Castle in Los Angeles, which trumps The Broad, he says, because philanthropists Eli and Edith Broad simply werent evil enough.
Rosen’s theory emerged after paying a visit to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, a private art collection his Portuguese friends insisted he check out, for its niche specificity. “He [Calouste Gulbenkian] clearly had periods he really loved, whether it was Baroque painting or Islamic ceramic art. And immediately I was reminded of other collections that are similarly idiosyncratic,” Rosen explains over the phone. Unlike larger art institutions, they’re not trying to showcase the entirety of art history across multiple floors, or attempt to tell a coherent story. “It’s kind of just like, whatever this person happened to be into,” he says.
When Rosen posted about the museum, one of his followers commented, “Amazing collection, but terrible guy.” That’s what prompted him to do some research on the British-Armenian businessman, who essentially paved the way for western companies to plunder the Middle East for its oil resources. Rosen began to see a pattern between these one-of-a-kind collections and the Machiavellian masterminds that curated them.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this sounds kind of familiar.’ Frick was a steel industrialist who was famously very cruel, broke strikes in the 19th century, and was one of the robber barons along with Carnegie,” Rosen explains. “And Getty was also a very famous oil guy who was notoriously ruthless in his political practices. So you start to kind of see how this pattern makes sense, how people with money end up amassing art collections.”
But say what you want about these hated titans of industry; they knew how to put a room together. And when the art is housed in the businessman’s former home or library—as is the case with the Frick Collection or Morgan Library—you get to marvel at the architecture as a spectacle in and of itself. Beyond the fact that these collections are often less crowded, off-the-beaten-path alternatives, Rosen believes they also function like time capsules. “It’s like, what were the extremely wealthy really into during this period? What were the signifiers of good taste?,” he explains.
It’s a real shame that billionaires today aren’t amassing such fine art collections. Rosen believes it’s because most of them dropped out of college, entered the tech world, and now stand, almost proudly, in their opposition to the liberal arts. Sam Bankman-Fried famously said he doesn’t read books. Elon Musk thinks the Cybertruck looks good. “Jeff Bezos got big selling books, not because he was a book lover, but because it was art that was able to be a commodity to be traded,” Rosen says.
In the world of AI and NFTs, Rosen says, it’s not about the content, but rather, the speed at which information is delivered. “Everything is about organizing data in new and exciting ways. And it’s fundamentally kind of anti-human, I think,” he explains. “So maybe as opposed to the industrialists, who were more focused on the ‘here,’ plundering earth for all its natural resources, destroying the environment, and establishing ruthless monopolies, there’s still maybe something human about it all, whereas newer billionaires are thinking much more about space and transhumanism and what’s next.”
So how do we best experience the collections our greedy forebears left for us? To find them, Rosen jokingly suggests following the 10th recommendation on a city’s list of museums. “If you go to Paris, skip the first five and go to L’Orangerie or the Marmottan. Or if you’re in London, check out the Sir John Soane’s Museum,” he says. Though these institutions were not necessarily founded by evil people, they offer smaller collections that Rosen feels are able to breathe better within the space.
“You might not see the most famous Monet, but one that you can get the closest to and really enjoy—really look at the brushstrokes,” he explains. “And you might be surprised by where some of the greatest works of art lie. They’re not all at the national gallery.”
As for whether or not we should feel guilty ogling at these hoards of wealth, no doubt acquired by some unjust means, Rosen believes the damage has already been done. “These guys are very dead for the most part. And unfortunately we already live in the world that they’ve created, so we may as well try to get something back by enjoying what they’ve left us,” he says. “They’ve created beautiful monuments to human achievement and you can just curse them under your breath as you wander.”
To help you discover that next, deep-cut Picasso, we’re highlighting some of the best private art collections around the world, calling out the distinctly wicked practices of their owners.
Rome, Italy
When you’re done fighting off crowds at The Vatican, get some fresh air at Galleria Borghese, home to some of the finest sculptures by Bernini and paintings by Caravaggio. Its namesake, Cardinal Schipione Borghese, used money from the papal finances to fund his family’s investments and, along with the help of Pope Paul V, threatened his way into obtaining the best artworks. When artist Cavalier d’Arpino failed to pay a tax bill, for example, the pope confiscated his entire art collection and demanded he give it to Borghese—including Caravaggio’s Boy With a Basket of Fruit and Sick Bacchus.
Vienna, Austria
A relatively new museum, the Heidi Horten Collection opened in 2022, showcasing around 50 works you’ll miss at the Albertina or Belvedere, from Chagall and Basquiat to Warhol and Klimt. The collection’s owner, Heidi Goëss-Horten (1944-2022), was once married to Helmut Horten, a Nazi who amassed a considerable amount of wealth buying Jewish businesses as part of Hitler’s Aryanization process. The museum recognizes the historical weight of these origins, however, and according to the website, Goëss-Horten commissioned a German historian and professor to conduct a scholarly reappraisal of the economic roots of her husband.
Baltimore, Maryland
The Walters Art Museum is an incredible dive into art history, with works that span from 5,000 BCE to the 21st century. You’ll discover all kinds of treasures, like ancient Roman sarcophagi, illuminated Qur’ans, and Chinese ceramics. Located in the city’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, the palazzo-style mansion is free for all to visit. But we hate to break it to you: The museum’s founder, William Thompson Walters, was a Confederate.
Madrid, Spain
This collection, completing Madrid’s Golden Triangle of Art, is a generations-long effort made by the Thyssen steel magnates. It was started in the 1920s by Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, who bought paintings from American millionaires brought low by the Great Depression and inheritance taxes. His son, Hans Heinrich, expanded his father’s stockpile with some German Expressionists like Heckel, Kirchner, and Schmidt-Rottluff. The collection was ultimately housed in Spain at the request of Thyssen-Bornemisza’s Spanish wife, but it wasn’t exactly a charitable donation. “He first gave the impression that he might freely donate his collection to Spain, and got the government to build the facilities to house the artworks,” The New York Times reported. “Then he persuaded the Spanish authorities to pay him $5 million a year to rent the collection while its final disposition was negotiated.”
Mexico City, Mexico
A silver, snakeskin anvil rising from the grounds of Mexico City, the Museo Soumaya is a sight that can’t be missed. As you ascend its six, spiral floors, you’ll encounter works that span Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, 19th and 20th-century Mexican art, and some European Old Masters, in particular a large collection of sculptures by Rodin and Salvador Dalí. The museum is named after Soumaya Domit, the late wife of Carlos Slim. That’s all sweet and good, except Slim is consistenly a subject of controversy. His wealth is equivalent to more than 5% of Mexico’s GDP, and his telecommunications empire, América Móvil, has kept the nation’s phone rates among the highest in the world.
Lisbon, Portugal
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation boasts a private collection of works from Ancient Egypt to the early 20th century, including names like Rembrandt, Monet, and Degas. The museum’s founder, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, had a particular penchant for French decorative arts, specifically the jewelry of René Lalique. The British-Armenian was also relentless in pursuing his stake in the oil companies he developed in the Middle East, earning the nickname “Mr. Five Per Cent.”
Los Angeles, California
“The whole place is evil to the bone,” Rosen says. Not only was the collection curated by Jean Paul Getty, the oil magnate who famously refused to pay the ransom on his 16-year-old grandson’s kidnapping, but it’s also housed in a building designed by Richard Meier, who resigned from his firm after being accused of sexual assault. But the site, Rosen argues, is an architectural masterpiece. “You have to take this tram to get there, which has amazing views, and it has this kind of grid-cube structure that’s almost like blank slates for you to wander,” he says. “It’s a postmodern temple in a way, and there’s an amazing sculpture garden you can get lost in.”
New York City, New York
The Frick Collection, famous for its Old Masters, houses three of the world’s 34 Vermeers, as well as an impressive collection of Titians. Walking through the Beaux-Arts mansion (currently under renovation), with its serene, plant-filled courtyard, will make you feel as though you’re a character in some Gilded Age period drama. While Henry Clay Frick was nice enough to bequeath his collection to the public, it was the least he could do. The steel titan famously opposed labor unions, which ultimately led to the violent clash known as the Homestead Strike of 1892. He was also a founding member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, whose faulty alterations of the South Fork Dam led to the Johnstown Flood that killed 2,200 people in 1889. So real was the public hatred, that a Russian anarchist tried to assassinate him.
