Cooling down from the World Cup craze in Brazil, Larry’s List, the world’s leading art collector database, is introducing art collectors who are or were professional athletes or sportsmen. While gaining international fame and fortune from their professional career in sports, these athletes have also developed a strong interest in art collecting, most of them are self-taught, and often collecting with a specific genre or sometimes related to their own cultural backgrounds.
· John McEnroe, former tennis player, USA
· David Beckham, former football player, UK
· Sami Allagui, football player, Germany
· Grant Hill, former NBA player, USA
· Fabio Capello, former football player, Italy
John McEnroe, former tennis player, USA
During and after his professional tennis career, he developed an impressive collection of American contemporary art including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Edward Ruscha. He knew Warhol personally and had commissioned Warhol to make a portrait of him and his ex-wife using the artist’s famous Polaroid style.
David Beckham, former football player, UK
The famous soccer player and his wife Victoria started their collection in 2002 and have since then been a huge supporter of established and upcoming art from their own country, Britain, namely the ones from the YBA. David has also shown his passion by purchasing both top-of-the-line artists like Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Dinos Chapman, as well as the young and emerging ones. The couple is building the collection around a theme of “love”, purchasing works as gifts to each other on special occasions.
Sami Allagui , football player, Germany
Born in 1986, Sami Allagui is a German-born Tunisian football striker and equally passionate about soccer, rap music and contemporary painting. Besides collecting paintings by Markus Tollmann or Jörg Immendorff, he also has early black and white photography by Helmut Newton in his collection. His fascination grew already when he was a kid and got to meet artist friends of his father, who is passionate about art.
Grant Hill, former NBA player, USA
The former basketball player is known for his museum-quality collection of African American Art, including renowned artists such as Romare Bearden, Hughie Lee-Smith and Elizabeth Catlett. Inherited a passion for art from his father Calvin Hill, Grant has purchased his first piece of art as early as a college student. After his successful sports career, Grant has continuing his passion by sponsoring an exhibition of his personal art collection across the States in 2003 to 2006.
Fabio Capello, former football player, Italy
Capello is a former Italian footballer and now a Russian football team manager. As a self-taught art lover, he managed to build an art collection which is said to be worth 10 million pounds. Amongst his fine art collections, he is known for his fascination of Russian expressionist painter Wassily Kandinsky and legendary Mark Chagall. He also collects Italian artist Piero Pizzi Cannella, who is a close friend of his.
