There is no business like art business. Whether the economy is slowing down or is in recession or the art valuations drop, avid art collectors really don’t mind spending multi-million dollars to get their hands on the world’s most sought-after artworks.

For centuries, wealthy patrons and collectors have been the life-blood of the art world. And, in the recent times, the billionaire art collectors like Steven A. Cohen, Roman Abramovich, Bill Gates, Francois Pinault, Steve Wynn, Leon Black, Paul Allen, Joseph Lau, to name a few has transformed the international art market with their lavish art spending.

Recently, a highly affluent New York financier Leon Black has been named as the mysterious $120 million buyer of the renowned Norwegian Expressionist artist Edvard Munch’s 1895 'The Scream', a pastel of a terrified figure with an agonized expression against a landscape with a tumultuous red sky. This highly coveted masterpiece, the fourth version of the composition, was actually sold on May 2 as part of the Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art auction.

Karanvir Singh