German painter and collector Herbert Volkmann died on Tuesday at the German Heart Institute in Berlin, Monopol reports. He was 60 years old. Volkmann studied painting under Hermann Bachmann in West Berlin and went on to have exhibitions with Contemporary Fine Arts, Volker Diehl, Laden fuer Nichts, and later Galerie Sexauer. The latter held an exhibition of his paintings this past January to coincide with Volkmann’s 60th birthday.

Aside from making art, Volkmann was also a very active collector in the 1990s. He had gained financial success as the owner of a fruit and vegetable distributer and became particularly active with the YBAs, Peter Doig, and Franz Ackermann according to the magazine. Due to financial difficulties with his business in the late 90s, he was forced to sell the entire collection at Christie’s. He was reportedly also struggling with drug and alcohol abuse at the time. But soon recovered and began a more active painting practice once again.

Responding to news of Volkmann’s death on Facebook, Volker Diehl wrote, “A wonderful man, one of the first collectors of Damien Hirst, Matthew Barney, Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, Peter Doig, and many others, and one of our best artists is sadly no longer with us. I have so much to thank Herbert for… RIP”