Celebrities Who Love Art: 10 Significant Celebrity Art Collections and What Inspired Them

Collecting art is a very personal pursuit, which means that every art collection is different and unique. A reflection of the collector's identity, taste and culture, no two are the same. This is why taking a peek inside a celebrity art collection is such an interesting prospect. What genres are they drawn to? Which artists do they like to collect? What subliminal messages are they sending with their choices?

Many celebrities are not only successful artists in their respective fields. They are also serious art collectors who view their collections as both personal passion projects and investments. With the growing trend for high-profile individuals entering the art market, thanks to the allure and enjoyment of passion investing, let’s take a closer look at 10 celebrities who love art and have amassed impressive, eclectic collections

1. The Steve Martin Art Collection: A Comedy King’s Modern Muse

Notoriously private about his collection, the US comedian Steve Martin is known to own pieces by many post-war, modern and contemporary American artists, including Roy Lichtenstein, Eric Fischl, Cindy Sherman, Edward Hopper and Willem de Kooning. He first became interested in art after graduating high school in 1964, when Abstract Expressionism was falling out of fashion to make way for the bright colours and everyday imagery of the Pop Art movement.

The acquisition of several 19th-century landscapes and a print of Ed Ruscha’s Hollywood represented the genesis of the Steve Martin art collection. His reason for collecting? It represented an escape from his “famous” persona, enabling him to step into another world where the artists were the celebrities and he was simply another admirer of their work. 

Like many art enthusiasts, Martin began collecting with a strategy: he wanted a coherent collection of works. However, this approach proved too limiting, and soon he was being led by instinct alone. “Eventually, I just got pictures that I really, really liked,” he shared in a 2015 interview with Artsy. As is so often the case with collectors, in 2015 the comedian stumbled upon a genre of art that immediately caused him to shift his collecting focus. Martin now owns more than 100 contemporary works by post-1970s Australian aboriginal artists, including Emily Kngwarreye, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa and Timo Hogan, and is executive producing the feature film ‘Honey Ant Dreamers’ about the emergence of Australia's Western Desert Art Movement.

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2. The Beyoncé & Jay Z Art Collection: The Power Couple Redefining Art Collecting

The couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z posing with Basquiat, part of the Tiffany Art Collection

Beyoncé and Jay Z certainly make sure the world knows they like art. Together, they have cultivated a remarkable collection that reflects their position as two of the most successful stars in music. Not shy when it comes to expressing their love of art, Jay Z’s track ‘Picasso Baby’ references not only the Spanish artist but also Mark Rothko, Jeff Koons and the Mona Lisa, with the couple recently appearing in an ad campaign for Tiffany & Co, backdropped by the long-unseen painting Equals Pi by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Jay Z has been very vocal about his admiration for the New York artist, and his impact on his own artistry. 

Believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars, the Beyoncé and Jay Z art collection includes two private commissions by Damien Hirst alongside works by a string of notable post-war artists, from Andy Warhol and Richard Prince to George Condo and Laurie Simmons. One of the most valuable pieces in their collection is Basquiat’s masterpiece Mecca. Purchased for $4.5 million in 2013, it is now estimated to be worth more than $20 million. 

The Beyoncé and Jay Z Basquiat collection also includes CPRKR (1982). In 2019, Jay Z loaned CPRKR to the Guggenheim Museum in New York for the exhibition ‘Basquiat’s Defacement: The Untold Story’. An exploration of Basquiat's response to anti-black racism and police brutality, something that Jay Z has advocated against for decades, the show reinforced the artistic and cultural kinship between the two artists.

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3. Swizz Beatz & Alicia Keys’ Art Collection: A Celebration of Black Artists

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz in their living room

Another music industry power couple, Alicia Keys, the Grammy Award-winning R&B artist, and the hip-hop super-producer Kasseem Dean, otherwise known as Swizz Beatz, own more than 1,000 works of art. Collectively known as the Dean Collection, an entire wing of their Modernist mansion in New Jersey is devoted to their acquisitions.

Dean began collecting art in the 1990s, with early purchases including Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans. Pieces by Ernie Barnes, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Gordon Parks followed, alongside works by Chagall and Miró and a 25ft painting by Kehinde Wiley, who is known for his classical portraits of African American and African-diasporic people. Dean and Keys are among the leading collectors of Black art in America, with more than 300 pieces in their collection by people of colour. 

For one very large work, the couple had to cut a hole in the exterior wall of their home to accommodate it. Google “Alicia Keys Kaws statue” and you will discover why. This epic, 19ft wood Kaws sculpture is among approximately 100 works that are currently touring the world as part of the exhibition ‘GIANTS: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys’. Described as “an ode to living life monumentally”, it’s a fascinating introduction to the Kasseem Dean and Alicia Keys art collection.

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4. Madonna’s Art Collection: A Feminine Lens

Madonna with her Frida Khalo portrait

Estimated to be worth up to $160 million, the Madonna art collection has earned the superstar singer a place in Art & Antiques’ 100 Biggest Collectors. As a fiercely feminist artist, much of her collection is devoted to works by female artists, including Tamara de Lempicka, Marilyn Minter and Frida Kahlo, who she has described as her “eternal muse”. 

Madonna moved to New York in 1978 to pursue a career in modern dance and quickly befriended the movers and shakers of the art world, including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. The artist Basquiat and Madonna even dated for a few months. She began buying art after receiving her first paycheck in the early 1980s and, over the course of her career, has quietly accumulated a collection of masterpieces by the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Man Ray, Damien Hirst, Salvador Dalí and Picasso. She has profited handsomely from collecting too. In 1990, she acquired the 1921 Cubist painting Three Women at the Red Table by Fernand Léger for $3.4 million, later selling it for $7.2 million, with proceeds going to her Ray of Light Foundation.

In May 2024, Madonna paid a visit to the home of her idol, Frida Kahlo. In Mexico as part of her ‘The Celebrations Tour’, she took to Instagram to share details of her visit, posting pictures of herself at Kahlo’s family home in Mexico City. “For me it was magical to try on her clothes and jewellery, to read her journals and letters and to look at photos I’d never seen before,” she said of her time there.

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5. Elton John’s Art Collection: The Rocket Man’s Photographic Odyssey

Elton John walking through his photography art collection

Elton John began collecting in the early 1990s and has amassed thousands of artworks. Since 1991, his passion has been primarily photography, his favourite medium. Totalling more than 7,000 works, he has one of the largest private collections of fine art photography in the world. 

As one of the UK’s richest musicians, Sir Elton had big dreams for his collection. In 1993, he bought Glass Tears (1932) by Man Ray for more than $190,000, the highest price ever paid for a single photograph at auction at the time. Today, the Elton John photography collection includes a trove of important photographic works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, William Eggleston, Diane Arbus and Ai Weiwei, alongside fashion photography by Horst P. Horst, Irving Penn and Herb Ritts.

Beyond photography, the Elton John art collection offers an unprecedented glimpse at his taste for up-and-coming artists, Contemporary art and works that are rooted in queer culture. A big fan of the artist Banksy, in 2017 he agreed to perform at the opening of Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem. Shortly after, he acquired Flower Thrower Triptych directly from the artist. When the superstar sent the art from his former Atlanta home to auction in February 2024, the star lot was Banksy’s iconic triptych, which sold for almost $2 million—the auction’s most expensive sale.

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6. Jack Nicholson’s Art Collection: The Hollywood Icon who Collects like a Pro

The actor photographed by Allan Tannenbaum

Estimated to be worth around $150 million, the Hollywood actor Jack Nicholson is another hard hitter on the celebrity art collecting scene. His interest in art began in the 1960s, with his collection centering on 20th-century artists, including such luminaries as Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Magritte, Tamara de Lempicka and Andy Warhol.

Warhol documented his life in Polaroid pictures, with Nicholson the subject of several dating from 1971 and 72. Friends for many years, the artist met the actor at Quo Vadis in New York in October 1976, where they chatted for hours for a feature in Interview magazine. A monthly journal, founded by Andy Warhol, that was dedicated to the cult of celebrity, the result was the famous Andy Warhol Jack Nicholson interview that appeared in the December 1976 issue.

Works by the Contemporary British artist Tracey Emin and Scotland’s Jack Vettriano also form part of the Jack Nicholson art collection. In 1996, the actor acquired three works from Vettriano’s ‘Halfway to Paradise’ exhibition in Hong Kong, including ‘Night Geometry’. Nicholson loaned the work to the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow for a major retrospective of the artist’s work in 2013.

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7. Brad Pitt’s Art Collection: A Sculptor’s Eye

Boy Soldier by Schoony (2020)

Assembled with his former wife Angelina Jolie, the Brad Pitt art collection is believed to be worth over $25 million and includes paintings, sculptures and other works by some of the world's leading artists, acquired over some 20 years. 

Banksy features prominently in the collection. In 2006, the couple attended the guerilla street artist’s ‘Barely Legal’ exhibition in Los Angeles, where they spent $200,000 on their first Banksy pieces, including Picnic and the sculpture Bullet Hole Bust. A year later, they purchased an entire collection of Banksy works at a London auction for more than £1 million. And, in 2012, Pitt and Jolie reportedly became among the lucky few to convince Banksy to create a commissioned piece just for them. The subject of this Angeline Jolie Brad Pitt Banksy collaboration was Hurricane Katrina, the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005. It is not known who owns these works now that Pitt and Jolie are separated.

From Pop artist Ed Ruscha to urban British artist Schoony, Brad Pitt’s art collection is impressive and diverse, with sculpture featuring prominently. Owner of a hyper-realistic depiction of a child holding a hand grenade by Schoony, Pitt even dabbles in sculpture himself in his purpose-built studio at home in LA. He exhibited his works for the first time in Finland in 2022.

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8. The Leonardo DiCaprio Art Collection: An Eco-Warrior’s Visionary Approach to Collecting

Untitled (Boxing Ring) by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1981)

The acclaimed actor and art aficionado Leonardo DiCaprio has developed a discerning eye for up-and-coming artists and amassed an impressive collection over the years. Frequently spotted at Art Basel Miami, attending openings in museums and bidding incognito at auction, the Leonardo DiCaprio art collection includes modern works by Picasso and Salvador Dalí, together with post-war pieces by Ed Ruscha, Frank Stella, Takashi Murakami and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

A passionate environmental activist, in 2013 DiCaprio organised a charity art auction at Christie’s that raised $38 million in a single night and set new sales records for 13 artists, with all proceeds benefiting global conservation projects. He is also an avid supporter of fine art photographer David Yarrow, a fellow philanthropist who has raised millions of pounds for conservation charities in Africa. Yarrow’s works have been auctioned at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Gala, which raises funds to help protect the last wild places on Earth. 

As for Leonardo Dicaprio’s favourite painting, in his documentary ‘Before The Flood’ he fondly recalls a work by Hieronymus Bosch, titled The Garden of Earthly Delights. His first memory, it hung above his crib as a baby.

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9. Kanye West’s Art Collection: The Art Innovator with a Condo Connection

Kanye West with artist George Condo

A little-known fact: Kanye West used to be an artist himself. After graduating from high school in 1995, the rapper received a scholarship to attend Chicago's American Academy of Art. In 2020, a cache of works he had created at high school made an unexpected appearance on Antiques Roadshow in the US. “Exceptionally well-done,” according to the appraiser, it is unsurprising, then, that Kanye has named Pablo Picasso as one of his role models. 

The Kanye West art collection includes a series of inspired artist collaborations. Who can forget the trippy album and single covers, and videos, by Takashi Murakami, beginning with 2007’s Graduation, and the KAWS Kanye album cover for the deluxe edition of 808s & Heartbreak? Even more memorable is the rapper’s work with the American contemporary artist George Condo on the artwork for his fifth studio album, released in 2010. The five alternate George Condo My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy covers included one controversial painting depicting a bear-like Kanye reclining on a bright blue couch, straddled by a nude, snow-leopard-tailed phoenix. Banned from many US stores, it had the desired effect of getting everyone talking about this George Condo Kanye West cover. 

Is George Condo Kanye’s favourite artist? The signs are all there. Early in his relationship with Kim Kardashian, Kanye made the headlines when he gifted his then-fiancé a Hermès Birkin bag, hand-painted by his close collaborator.

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10. Kendall Jenner’s Art Collection: A Contemporary Art Aesthetic

Kendall Jenner in her home in Beverly Hills

Like the other, very famous members of her family, the fashion model and socialite Kendall Jenner loves art. In her LA home, a neon light installation by the British artist Tracey Emin is prominently displayed in the master bedroom. Titled Very Happy Girl, it spells out the dimensions of Emin’s ex-boyfriend’s penis, alongside the words “glad to hear you’re a happy girl”. 

Continuing the fluoro pink theme, in the foyer of Jenner’s home is a $750,000 sculpture by the pioneering light and space artist James Turrell. The glowing work is part of Turrell’s ‘Elliptical Glass’ series and reveals Jenner’s very contemporary tastes when it comes to the art she decorates her personal spaces with. 

The Kendall Jenner art collection also includes important pieces by Barbara Kruger, Richard Prince, Raymond Pettibon and Sterling Ruby. Frequently spotted at Art Basel Miami, alongside her pals Bella and Gigi Hadid, as the world’s highest-paid model, don’t be surprised if other museum-worthy works pop up on Kendall’s Instagram in the near future.  

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Conclusion 

Collecting has proved to be a uniquely enriching journey for all of the 10 celebrities who love art, above. From Banksy devotee and budding sculptor Brad Pitt to contemporary Aboriginal art specialist Steve Martin and Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, champions of black artists, each has used art as an opportunity to express their personality, invest in their future and engage with the art world in a way that is authentic to them.

Inspired to grow your art collection? Discover the high-calibre contemporary works at Maddox Gallery. 

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