Brad Pitt Spends $1 Million At Art Basel

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jun 10th 2009 at 11:01PM

My colleague Tom Johansmeyer mentioned the other day that the Art Basel exhibit in Switzerland was bracing for a slump but the art affair has had a boost from a celebrity buyer. Brad Pitt caused a stir when he showed up to check out the exhibits and spent $1 million on a new artwork to add to his collection. He bought Neo Rauch's 9-foot rainbow-coloured racetrack painting Etappe which shows a driver behind a red, Formula One-style race-car. Pitt was in good company, he was seen with billionaire art collector Eli Broad. In fact, the Daily Mail reports that Broad encouraged Pitt to buy the painting telling him that if he didn't buy it than Broad and his wite Edythe would. Also seen at the exhibition were Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and his girlfriend Daria Zhukova, designer Karl Lagerfeld and model Naomi Campbell.

Tags: art basel, ArtBasel, brad pitt, BradPitt, eli broad, EliBroad, karl lagerfeld, KarlLagerfeld, neo rauch, NeoRauch