20th Century Financial Titan and Top Modern Art Collector Roy R. Neuberger Dies at 107
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, September 25, 2025


20th Century Financial Titan and Top Modern Art Collector Roy R. Neuberger Dies at 107
Roy R. Neuberger, one of the foremost patrons of American art, speaks in his apartment Jan. 27, 2003. AP Photo/John Marshall-Mantel.



NEW YORK, NY.- Roy R. Neuberger, a Wall Street investor who became one of the nation's top modern art collectors, has died. He was 107.

Neuberger died Friday at his home in Manhattan's Pierre Hotel, said Rich Chimberg, a spokesman for the Neuberger Berman firm.

Neuberger had survived Wall Street's three major crises with enough money to build one of the largest private collections of major contemporary masterpieces.

He acquired hundreds of paintings and sculptures by such artists as Milton Avery, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe and others. But he never sold any work by a living artist, believing collectors should buy contemporary art and keep it, while giving the public access.

The works are now scattered at 70 institutions in 24 states — many at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, north of New York City.

At a White House ceremony in 2007, President George W. Bush presented him with a National Medal of Arts.

Neuberger was a consummate New Yorker, living in the city for a century after moving from his native Bridgeport, Conn.

He finished high school but dropped out of college to work for the department store B. Altman & Co. as an upholstery fabric buyer. During his two years there, he developed a taste for both art and business.

To get closer to the European scene he knew from books, Neuberger moved to Paris in 1924 on money inherited from his father. That's where he decided to start collecting.

In his 1997 autobiography, "So Far, So Good: The First 94 Years," he said that "to do so, I had to have capital of considerably more than the inheritance that gave me an annual income of about $2,000. ... So I decided to go back to work in earnest."

He got to Wall Street in the spring of 1929, as a runner for the brokerage firm Halle & Stieglitz.

Betting that the stock market might fall, Neuberger sold short on shares of the most popular stock then, Radio Corp. of America, and came out of the stock market crash losing only 15 percent of his money.

After becoming a stockbroker in 1930, he started his own firm with a partner, surviving the crash of 1987.

In 1996, "the Dow Jones industrial average had climbed to 5,704 and (his wife) Marie and I had had 64 wonderful years together," he wrote. She died in 1997.

Neuberger published a second memoir, "The Passionate Collector," in 2003.

He is survived by his daughter, Ann Neuberger Aceves; sons Roy S. Neuberger and James A. Neuberger; eight grandchildren; and 30 great-grandchildren.

A funeral was planned for Sunday at Manhattan's Riverside Memorial Chapel.


Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.










Today's News

December 26, 2010

Thieves Try to Sell 800,000 Euro Eduardo Chillida Sculpture for 30 Euros to Scrap Metal Yard

Museum of the Confederacy Opens Civil War Message, Decodes It: No Help Coming

20th Century Financial Titan and Top Modern Art Collector Roy R. Neuberger Dies at 107

Forty Photographs by Photographer Jeanloup Sieff at Bernheimer Fine Art Photography

More than 350,000 have Visited the First Exhibition in Mexico Dedicated to Moctezuma II

Selection of Vintage Gelatin Silver and Polaroid Prints by Albert Watson at Hamiltons

Exhibitions: Pablo Picasso Zurich Exhibition Recreates Landmark 1932 Show

Art Antiques London 2011 on Track to Repeat Success of Last Year's Inaugural Fair

"Seasons" Exhibitions Celebrate the Importance of Seasons in Chinese and Japanese Art

Donald Ellis Gallery to Unveil Rare Eskimo Masks at New York's Winter Antiques Show

In Time for the Holidays, Art Gallery of Ontario Opens Family-Friendly Exhibitions for Holidays

German Artist Manfred Pernice Develops Sculpturama Show Especially for the Secession

Architect and Engineer Dov Karmi Featured in Exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Details Announced for 5th FORMAT International Photography Festival at QUAD Derby

New Exhibition at the Arnulf Rainer Museum, Baden: Anrulf Rainer's Visages

Berlin: Sediments of a City by Mona Breede at Galerie Dittmar in Berlin

New York State Museum Exhibits Works by Leading Printmaker Frank C. Eckmair

The Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2011 to Present: Fia Backström & Andreas Eriksson

New Exhibition in China Celebrates Three Decades of British Art

Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston Exhibits Works by a Founding Member of Fluxus




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 




Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)


Editor: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful