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Taming Unwieldy Collections
Julie Connelly
06/01/2005
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New Yorkers Byron and Susan Bell have been gathering what they call “useful
objects” since 1970. Artisans in developing countries fashion these handmade
items—including baskets, bowls, chairs, spoons and mugs—for everyday use. Today
the items in their collection number between 7,000 and 8,000; they plan to give
them to a museum. “Then we could collect more of the same thing because we love
it,” Susan says. “We’d be invigorated by bare walls, and we’d range further
afield.”
 Robert Lerch, a Manhattan physician who specializes in ear, nose and
throat diseases, hunts down Tiffany lamps, stained-glass windows, Bakelite
radios and jewelry, and figural bronze lamps. “I’ve made so much in a
nonmonetary way by how collecting has enriched my life,” he says. “Every day is
an adventure. It’s one big treasure hunt.”
Idiosyncratic passions like these,
combined with the increasing value of fine art, antiques and other treasures,
drive aficionados of all stripes to amass large collections. For many of them, a
pursuit spurred by simple appreciation or a quirky habit has become a very
lucrative diversion.
Marshall Fogel, an attorney in Denver, boasts a
collection of baseball memorabilia that includes an assortment of game-used bats
larger than the one at baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. He watched
transfixed last December when a bat Babe Ruth used in 1923 to hit the very first
home run at Yankee Stadium went on the auction block at Sotheby’s in New York.
An unnamed East Coast collector paid $1.27 million for it. “When a bat sells for
$1.2 million, how excited do you think people are going to get?” he asks. “My
collection is going to go up. My collecting didn’t start out as an investment,
but it has become one. Now I’ve got to manage it.”
Like Fogel, many
enthusiasts have found that when their collections grow in size, scope and
value, managing them can quickly become an overwhelming task. Many fail to
foresee that the burdens of ownership will grow in tandem with their success as
collectors.
These extra burdens may include the need to hire a team of
experts, revamp living space and, of course, meet unexpected expenses.
Collectors must keep their precious objects in pristine condition to maintain
their value. Owners who had not previously worried about theft find themselves
forced to install elaborate security systems. The Wall Street Journal estimates
that art protection is a $200 million a year business, growing at an annual rate
of 30 percent. “You had something very simple that has become complicated,” says
appraiser Alex Rosenberg of Alex Rosenberg Fine Art in New York.
The first significant hurdle many active collectors will face is space—or
the lack thereof. The Bells’ entire Manhattan home is given over to their
collection, which covers every surface, including the floor. Steve Shane, an
anesthesiologist, collects contemporary art and now has more than 600 pieces,
including works by Jean Dubuffet and Cindy Sherman. “Storage is a problem,” he
admits. “My two homes are filled. I hang my pictures salon style, and the walls
are covered from floor to ceiling. I’ve got things on the sofas, and eight
pieces are leaning against the kitchen table.” Even so, he returned from the Art
Basel show in Miami last December with nine new purchases.
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