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GREENWICH, Conn.—The rich are defined as much by their hobbies as by their jobs (or source of inherited wealth). The potent combination of sizable disposable income and a goodly amount of leisure time has brought us polo, golf and the gin and tonic—all prevalent in the leafy confines of Greenwich, Connecticut, long a seat of the lock-jawed American aristocracy.

Only 63,000 people live in the town—just 35 miles north of Manhattan and lapped on its southern shore by Long Island Sound—and lately it seems that every one of them is an art collector. Buying paintings has always been somewhere on the Greenwich squire’s to-do list. Since the 1990s, however, collecting has shot straight to the top, largely because of new arrivals who have made the town feel younger and more cosmopolitan. It’s also gotten richer—if that’s conceivable—thanks to a little something called the hedge fund. And it’s well documented by now that hedge funders find art completely irresistible.

Danielle Ganek captured the type perfectly in her 2007 novel about the New York art scene, Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him, in which we meet the collector Martin Better, who is “so far uptown, he lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.” With his helicopter, his rail-thin wife (formerly his secretary) and a giant house filled, of course, with cutting-edge artworks, Better is a caricature drawn from Ganek’s own life: Her husband is David Ganek, who founded the hedge fund Level Global Investors after working for Steven Cohens SAC Capital Advisors. Before their recent move from Greenwich to Manhattan, the couple loaned pieces by Maurizio Cattelan, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman and Bill Viola to the town’s Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences.

If you turn out of the Bruce parking lot and follow the silver Bentleys and black Mercedeses up Greenwich Avenue, the heart of downtown, past Richard’s, the ultraluxe clothing store where the news anchor and Greenwich native Matt Lauer worked as a teenager, and power-lunch spots Jean-Louis and Pierangelo, you’ll soon find yourself amid estates with green lawns, ancient trees and sprawling manicured gardens spied through gaps in stone walls. Inside these houses are some of the country’s greatest collections. Greenwich, in fact, may well be America’s art capital.

If so, it’s also an international one. The residents are known for getting around in their global art quest. As local powerhouse Jennifer Stockman observes, “When I go to art fairs, I run into so many people from Greenwich. Maybe they are collectors, and maybe they’re just looking. But it
has caught on.”

For the biggest and savviest collectors in town, buying art is more than just a hobby. They have yielded, body and soul, to their passion, creating a connoisseur’s Arcadia of minimuseums in the process—indeed, several of the top collections are slated to go public or semipublic in the coming years. Here is a rundown of who’s got what. But don’t expect an actual invitation for a viewing: Discretion has always been Greenwich’s first commandment, and despite the switch from hedgerows to hedge funds, some things never change.

The Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences
Jennifer and David Stockman
Reba and Dave Williams
Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant
Steven Cohen
Marei von Saher
Other Notables
The Old Guard
Lisa and Richard A. Baker
Sydie and Gerrit Lansing
Pamela and Arthur Sanders
Anonymous

"The New Custom of the Country" originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's July 2008 Table of Contents.