From Salvador Dalí to Jean-Michel Basquiat: Exploring Leonardo DiCaprio’s art collection
As one of Hollywood’s most successful and highest-paid actors of all time, with his movies grossing over $7.2billion worldwide, Leonardo DiCaprio is certainly not strapped for cash. With that, the actor, whose big break came in the 1993 film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, spends a significant amount of his earnings on art, ranging from classic to contemporary artists.
It appears that an interest in art has been embedded in the star since he was in his mother’s womb. The actor was named after the iconic painter Leonardo da Vinci because DiCaprio’s pregnant mother first felt him kicking whilst standing in front of one of his paintings. The actor also cites one of his first memories as the painting The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, which hung above his crib.
To the general public, DiCaprio is well known for his roles in films such as Titanic, Romeo + Juliet, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Departed. However, in the art world, he is recognised as a frequent visitor to art fairs such as Art Basel, one of the biggest shows in the industry. It’s here that the actor has taken home some incredibly sought-after pieces, such as Frank Stella’s 1973 screenprint Double Gray Scramble, for nearly $1million.
However, one of DiCaprio’s first purchases was a Jean-Michel Basquiat drawing, which remains unknown to the public. He once told the Wall Street Journal: “In New York, Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Francesco Clemente and Julian Schnabel were the guys who were big in the 1980s when I began to understand art better. They were my heroes, and I’ve continued to be a huge admirer of Basquiat.”
In 2011, he purchased a piece from another massive name – artist and filmmaker Salvador Dalí. The bid was held at Christie’s auction house in New York City, with the actor securing the Surrealist painting Chevalier for $1.2million. That same year, DiCaprio also spent $400,000 on Under the Influence by Oscar Murillo. A few years later, the actor purchased Nachlass from the Brooklyn-based artist Jean-Pierre Roy.
DiCaprio’s collection also includes a small drawing from 1939 by Pablo Picasso entitled Fillette. He boasts works such as The Tigress by Walton Ford, Untitled (Drawings off the wall) by Murillo, and Takashi Murakami’s Mononoke. In 2013, the actor held a charity auction for environmental causes, The 11th Hour, which displayed some of DiCaprio’s private collection, including Mark Grotjahn’s Untitled (Standard Lotus No.11, Bird of Paradise, Tiger Mouth Face 44.01) and Ocean V by Andreas Gursky. A portrait of the actor himself sold at the auction for $1million, painted by Elizabeth Peyton.
Moreover, DiCaprio collects vintage movie posters, possessing an original poster of Metropolis by Heinz Schulz-Neudamm, which cost him $690,000. He’s also an avid collector of fossils and rare books, including a Torvosaurus skull.
