Maurizio Cattelan, La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour) (1999). Installation view from the 2012 Guggenheim Museum retrospective.
Photo: Valeria Rosalez via Flickr

What’s on your holiday wish list? If you’re one of the world’s biggest art collectors, chances are your list will look quite a bit more eclectic—and expensive—than that of the average art lover. We asked a handful of major collectors what’s on their immediate list, or at least what’s on the horizon, for the year ahead. Here’s what they told us.

Don and Mera Rubell
Miami collectors Don and Mera Rubell, who are on artnet News’ list of uber-rich art collectors, have been collecting contemporary art for 50 years and have assembled what is said to be one of the world’s largest privately owned contemporary art foundations. They have hosted roughly 20 exhibitions to date, including the current show on view in Miami, “To Have and to Hold,” which celebrates their 50-year marriage (See “Which Private Collections Have the Best Art in Miami Beach?“).

So what do they have their eye on now? A rep told us: “An artwork they really love but don’t own. It’s not one they plan on trying to acquire next year but it’s a piece they wish they had in their collection—Maurizio Cattelan’s La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour) (1999).” There are only two versions of the sculpture, which depicts Pope John Paul II, in the immediate aftermath of being felled by a meteorite, lying sideways on the ground, face twisted in pain, amid a sea of shattered glass. (The Rubells own eight other Cattelan works) One version of The Ninth Hour sold at Phillips New York in 2004 for $3 million (exceeding its high estimate of $2 million). The incendiary sculpture was also shown at the Guggenheim Museum’s Cattelan retrospective in 2012, where, like all the other Cattelan works on view (virtually everything the artist created since 1999), it was displayed hanging from the ceiling.

An example of a work by Deborah Kass, OY/YO (2011).
Courtesy of Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

Doreen Remen
Doreen Remen, cofounder of Art Production Fund and the founder of Art Markit, told artnet News: “This year would be the year I would love to acquire a painting by Deborah Kass. Her work is both universal and personal, or perhaps universal because it is so personal. I find her vision to be clever, hugely liberating, and completely hysterical. She is such a significant voice from her generation.

One of Lucas Michael’s Polaroids from the Golden Globes ceremony, Jessica Chastain.
Photo: Courtesy the artist and Danziger Gallery.

“To complement that,” said Remen, “I would also get a piece by Lucas Michael. Lucas is multidisciplinary, creating sculpture, drawings, videos and photography, and he intersects pop culture with a deeply personal narrative. For the last couple of years, he has shot Polaroids at the Golden Globes, simultaneously giving us Warhol and FOMO. This time around, I would get a set of his Polaroids.”

Tingari (2003), an example of a painting by Aboriginal artist Yukultji Napangati.
Photo: Courtesy artnet.

Dennis and Debra Scholl
In 2013, Miami collectors Dennis and Debra Scholl gave a gift of nearly 300 works of art, including pieces by Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Walead Beshty, Ólafur Elíasson, Liam Gillick, Catherine Opie, and Raymond Pettibon to the Pérez Art Museum. What’s among their most-wanted right now? Dennis Scholl told artnet News via email:
“I recently went to Australia to film contemporary Australian Aboriginal artists and met an extraordinary painter, Yukultji Napangati. She was born in the bush and 30 years ago, at the age of 14, was one of the last pre-contact aboriginals, known as the Pintupi Nine, who emerged from the Australian desert, causing a major international media furor. I covet a large painting by her, as the work breaks down the boundaries between insider and outsider art.”

An example of a work by Jannis Varelas, Clair, Maid Costume, F/orange (2011).
Photo: via Saatchi Gallery.com 2011

Peter Hort
New York collector Peter Hort, whose family owns an estimated 3,000 contemporary works (See “Want a Peek Inside the Exclusive Hort Family Collection?“), told us he would like a work by Jannis Varelas. “He is a Greek artist that lives and works in both Los Angeles and Vienna,” Hort told artnet News over email. “He shows at Galerie Krinzinger. I really love his work and expect him to have a big year. I also think that he will be soon out of my price range, if not already.”

An example of a 1948 Jackson Pollock painting, Number 1A, which is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
© 2014 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Norman and Irma Braman
Miami collectors Norman and Irma Braman told artnet News over email that one piece they would love to add to their collection is a 1948 Jackson Pollock.