Art collecting is. described as a journey, but where does it begin? We spoke to leading collectors who shared the stories of their first acquisitions—art purchases that laid the foundation for their remarkable collections today.

Naomi Milgrom: Works by Howard Arkley and Rosalie Gascoigne

Portrait of Naomi Milgrom with Anselm Kiefer’s Merkaba (1997/2011) in the background. Photo: Duncan Killick.

“During my university years, I made my first art purchases, both works by Australian artists—Howard Arkley and Rosalie Gascoigne. They’re two very different artists, but they both made work very closely related to our Australian surroundings—the city and the country. Arkley was fascinated by Australian suburbia, and the architectural features and interior décor of suburban homes. The bold pop colors applied to his canvases with airbrush tools invited us to celebrate the domestic. Choosing seemingly simple materials sometimes drawn from the landscape but often marked in some way by the passing of time, Gascoigne created profound and beautiful works.”

Alexander Petalas: Eva Rothschild’s “The Perimeter”

Eva Rothschild’s The Perimeter (2009), center. Courtesy of Alexander Petalas.

“The Perimeter (2009), a sculpture by Irish artist Eva Rothschild for the price in the region of £20,000 (around $32,400, according to historic exchange rate), which gave its name to the space I founded in 2018. Founding and running The Perimeter for the last seven years has enabled me to be bolder and braver in my collecting. I have acquired many non-domestic works that I will never be able to install at home but that I can exhibit at The Perimeter for wider audiences to enjoy.”

David Montalba: A work by an obscure Belgian painter

David Montalba, 2024. Photo: Adam Amengual.

“Our first purchase was a still life work by a rather obscure Belgian painter in Geneva, Switzerland in the mid-1990s. I think we paid $600 for it, although I was in my early 20s so it seemed like a lot more at the time!”

Kurt Gitter: a Japanese Haniwa figure

Alice Yelen Gitter and Kurt Gitter. Courtesy of Japan Society.

“In 1963, I was drafted as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force following the completion of my medical internship in New York. Although I was interested in contemporary American art, I was unfamiliar with Japanese art. I visited various ceramics stores, which were abundant where I was stationed in Fukuoka, and this sparked an enduring passion for Japanese art. Among the first things I purchased in Japan was a Haniwa figure, a terracotta clay funerary object buried with the dead during the Kofun period, that remains in our collection to this day.”

Kim Manocherian: Andy Warhol prints

Portrait of Kim Manocherian with Paula Rego’s Scheherazade behind her. Photo: Romer Pedron.

“My first purchase was in 1992 and it was a portfolio of Andy Warhol shoes (hand-colored prints) from Susan Sheehan Gallery. I can’t tell you why I responded to them as they don’t have the same qualities of the art I collect today, but I still love them—something to do with the juxtaposition of color and the fact that it is a series. I have a love of fashion, and the way style can represent people. I still very much enjoy them.”