Why Did Art Collector Steve Cohen Have a Pet Pig?

Steve Cohen.
Photo: © 2014 Patrick McMullan Company, Inc.

Hedge fund honcho and art collector Steve Cohen has posted his pet pig, Romeo, to a vegan animal rescue facility in Florida, according to the New York Post‘s Page Six.

The 150-pound pig was kept at Cohen’s extensive Connecticut estate and even had his own living quarters. With over $11.4 billion in net worth and having dropped $240 million in the past year on Giacometti works alone, one would think Cohen would able to keep up with the expanding waistline of his beloved boar (see Billionaire Steve Cohen Goes On a $240 Million Giacometti Buying Spree and Steve Cohen’s Modigliani and $75 Million Leonardo at Heart of Yves Bouvier Case.)

But it looks like the mogul’s mansion, which boasts 35,000-square-feet and 30 rooms, wasn’t big enough to continue to house the swine. According to a source who saw Cohen with Romeo: “Their pet pig was like a member of the Cohen family. Romeo had a room in their house. He was treated like the king of the house, but he got too big, and was sent to a sanctuary in Florida. They even threw a leaving dinner for him.”

A second source told Page Six that the pig was purchased originally as a gift for the billionaire’s seven children, but that “recently he started to get a little moody.” A veterinarian told the Cohens that Romeo needed to be with other animals, “so Steve arranged for him to go to a farm to be with other pigs.” We’re imagining a kind of Canyon Ranch facility, for swine.

It looks like its been a big week for pigs, since pop singer Miley Cyrus was photographed nude holding one for the cover of Paper.

Perhaps its time for Jeff Koons to do another version of his 1989-89 magazine ad series?

Jeff Koons. Art Magazine Ads (Art in America) (1988-89).Photo: Tate.org.

Jeff Koons. Art Magazine Ads (Art in America) (1988-89).
Photo: Tate.org.uk.


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