Behind every billionaire there is a story!

The Art World’s Most Influential People,Chosen by ArtReview Magazine’s Panel

1. François Pinault
Collector, French

Two years ago Mr. Pinault, now 71, purchased the Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal in Venice, employing Japanese architect Tadao Ando to transform it into a museum for his collection, which beggars the word “vast” and includes such familiar but still exceptional names as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Subodh Gupta, Richard Prince, Bruce Nauman, Robert Gober and Dan Flavin

 5. Eli Broad
Collector, American

 The former housing mogul Eli Broad, 74, is not only the most powerful person in Los Angeles’ art community, he’s arguably the most powerful Angeleno, full stop. Love him or hate him, he’s been the prime mover behind the city’s civic and cultural recovery from the riots in 1992

9. Steven A. Cohen
Collector, American

Leave it to a hedge-fund guy — trained to think with his wallet — to anticipate the big shifts in the art market. Steven A. Cohen, 51, a Connecticut- and New York-based billionaire, once collected Edvard Munch. Now he’s into Damien Hirst. And as if to demonstrate the recent political shift in the art world, with collectors having more and more power, he’s rumored to be building a private museum at his home in Connecticut, despite strong connections to MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

read the rest published by WSJ here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119212142369856161.html