Collectors of modern art are modern heroes. Numerous new museums bear their names. Peter Ludwig, Rudolf Leopold, Karl Heinz Essel, Herbert W. Liaunig…

Artists either love them or despise them. Directors of state museums court them and trust them to bring in impressive numbers of visitors. Politicians in the field of culture admire them, but also fear them. The modern super-machine of culture cannot operate without super-collectors. There are more and more people who feel it is not such a good thing. Especially when collectors figure as noble museum founders.