Last week, ARTnews celebrated this year’s Top 200 Collectors list (to publish online October 4) with a cocktail party at the New York City apartment of Roger Sant and his late wife Vicki Sant, veterans of the Top 200 list.
The co-hosts of the evening were ARTnews‘s Editor-in Chief, Sarah Douglas, and Luke Bahrenburg, Executive Vice President of Art Media, as well as Top 200 collectors Lonti Ebers, who has appeared on each edition since 2017, and Anita Blanchard and Martin Nesbitt, new additions to this year’s list, in partnership with VistaJet, HUB International, and Maestro Dobel.
[Lonti Ebers speaks about the continued importance of artist residencies in this year’s Top 200 issue.]
The conversation starter, and the most Instagrammed picture of the night, was the undeniably breathtaking view of Central Park from the full-floor condominium in the Residences At Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South. (In case you are in the market for a New York pied-à-terre with an upgraded storage facility and viewing room, the apartment is for sale too—just ask Carol Stabb.)
Some attendees of the evening included collectors Paul and Trudy Cejas, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Charlotte Feng Ford, A.C. and Thelma Hudgins, Bernard Lumpkin, Raymond J. McGuire, Ric Whitney, and Rodney Miller, as well as Antwaun Sargent, Lucien Smith, Craig Starr, Nicola Vassell, Hong Gyu Shin, Mathieu Templon, Eleanor Cayre, Sarah Wendell Sherrill, Emily Alderman, Loring Randolph, Noah Horowitz, Jamie Gregory, and Tracey Ryans.
Guests enjoyed the evening, with Black Diamond Margaritas by Maestro Dobel, as they perused the postwar and contemporary art holdings that Roger and Vicki had acquired during their marriage, including standout works by the likes of Joan Mitchell, Donald Judd, Nicolas de Stäel, Wayne Thiebaud, Ellsworth Kelly, and more. These works will head to auction at Christie’s this November to benefit the Summit Foundation, a nonprofit founded by the Sants that administers grants in ocean conservation, equality for women and girls, and sustainability in North American cities. (The collection will be on tour next month from Hong Kong to Los Angeles to London.)
The most difficult part of the evening was getting there, as the United Nations General Assembly was in session and roadblocks were installed throughout Midtown Manhattan. From the work of the Summit Foundation and Ebers’s Amant residency in Brooklyn and Italy, it is nice to be reminded that even when we are celebrating the most active collectors of this past year, it’s not all about the market.