Collector Peter Brant’s Son Arrested at JFK Airport

He was reportedly acting 'drunk and belligerent.'

Peter Brant, Jr. at the New York Premiere of The Age of Adeline.
Photo: Jimi Celeste, © Patrick McMullan.

Peter Brant Jr., son of supermodel Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant, art collector and majority owner of the newly-merged Art in America and ARTnews magazines, was arrested on March 23 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, reports Page Six.

Port Authority spokesperson Joe Pantangelo told Page Six that the 22-year-old model was preparing to board a JetBlue flight to West Palm Beach, Florida, when he got into an altercation with an airline staffer. An anonymous source claimed Peter Jr. was acting “drunk and belligerent,” before Port Authority police were called to the scene.

Peter Brant Jr. and Harry Brant at the Givenchy Spring 2016 Fashion Show. Photo: Sean Zanni, © Patrick McMullan.

Peter Brant Jr. and Harry Brant at the Givenchy Spring 2016 Fashion Show.
Photo: Sean Zanni, © Patrick McMullan.

After reportedly getting into a physical fight with an officer, according to police, he was taken to Jamaica Hospital to be treated for severe intoxication and to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Peter Jr. and his younger brother Harry have garnered much attention for their “Rich Kids of Instagram” lifestyle, with adoring profiles in Vanity Fair (which praised their “strikingly beautiful, milky-white faces” and anointed them “the dandy teenage boulevardiers of New York society”) and the New York Times (which proclaimed the brothers “the new princes of the city” and attributed their fame “for just being … well, fabulous”).

Peter Brant Jr., right, with his brother, Harry Brant, and his father, Peter M. Brant. Photo: Nicholas Hunt, © Patrick McMullan.

Peter Brant Jr., right, with his brother, Harry Brant, and his father, Peter M. Brant.
Photo: Nicholas Hunt, © Patrick McMullan.

Their meteoric rise as teenage socialites has not been without a considerable backlash. Cracked.com published a piece titled “Introducing Two Wealthy Young Celebrities You Will Soon Hate,” and Gawker noted that Times style articles seem designed “to introduce you to society’s biggest shitheads” and that “no one at that paper could possibly think these two teenagers—who have yet to contribute anything meaningful to society—are inherently interesting.”

In a piece analyzing the negative feelings toward the brothers, the Observer likened them to Derek Zoolander, calling them “innocent idiots who just happen to be really, really, really, ridiculously wealthy.”

The airport incident is not Peter Jr.’s first run-in with the law. In July 11, Seymour reportedly called the cops to the family’s Greenwich, Connecticut, home after arguing with her son. The police told Page Six that Peter Jr. was ticketed in 2014 after being caught with marijuana in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Later that year, Peter Jr. and Harry were allegedly involved in a bar brawl in West Palm Beach.


Follow Artnet News on Facebook:


Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.