

In 2018, Astrup’s Michael Jackson with Bubbles was shown at the Met Breuer’s survey “Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300–Now).” Astrup bought the work at that sale for $5.6 million, at the time setting a new benchmark for Koons, who is now the world’s most expensive living artist. In 2001, Sotheby’s sold Jeff Koons’s 1988 sculpture Michael Jackson with Bubbles, featuring the famed singer alongside his pet chimpanzee. You don’t meet many like that today.”Īt auction, Astrup’s purchases even set records.
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“When I was making the formaldehyde works, they were big pieces to buy, a big commitment, and he buys it without knowing where it’s going to go or how you transport it,” Hirst said in a 2008 interview with the Norwegian TV network NRK, adding, “It’s a rare breed, that kind of person.

In 1993, for example, he bought Damien Hirst’s sculpture Mother and Child Divided (1993), which features a bisected cow and calf suspended in formaldehyde. Photo Einar Aslaken/©Astrup Fearnley MuseetĪstrup took an interest in certain market giants early on. In 2013, he donated all of his commercial assets, including his company’s art collection, to his namesake foundation in order to support the Astrup Fearnley Museet, which is now considered one of the world’s top private museums. One of Norway’s richest men, he made his fortune in the shipping and real-estate businesses, and is believed to have been worth around $1 billion. “We are struck with sadness and will always treasure his extraordinary philanthropy and cultural leadership that has impacted so many in so many ways,” Solveig Øvstebø, the museum’s director, wrote in its statement.Īstrup, who ranked on ARTnews‘s annual Top 200 Collectors list each year between 19, was known throughout Europe as a collector with a penchant for cutting-edge art. In an Instagram post, his museum, the Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo, wrote that he died on Friday morning. Hans Rasmus Astrup, the scion of a Norwegian shipping empire who built a world-class museum for his vast collection of contemporary art, has died at 82.
