Swiss collector Nicola Erni discusses her private art collection built over 25 years, focusing on photography from the 1960s and 70s, fashion photography by Helmut Newton, Mario Testino, and Annie Leibovitz, and contemporary works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. She recounts acquiring Warhol's 'Sixty Last Suppers' (1986), now on loan to Fondation Beyeler, and reveals her emotional decision-making process for purchases, as well as a regret over missing a Basquiat-Warhol collaboration at auction.
This interview matters because it offers rare insight into one of the world's largest private photography collections and the mindset of a major but private collector. Erni's comments on art fairs, her new exhibition 'Mix & Match: Fashion Photography Meets Contemporary Art' at the Nicola Erni Collection, and her tip for Basel visitors highlight current trends in collecting and the intersection of fashion photography with contemporary art, relevant to the art market and exhibition circuit.