© Jeff Koons, photo by Paul Mutino, The Stephanie and Peter Brant Foundation, Greenwich, Connecticut
Jeff Koons's 2006 "Monkey Train," from The Stephanie and Peter Brant Foundation
By Sarah Douglas
Published: July 2, 2008
Before Greenwich was associated with art, it was associated with sports. One collector who has straddled those two worlds is the polo-playing publishing magnate Peter Brant, a resident for more than 30 years. In fact, the polo grounds are in Conyers Farm, which Brant helped develop, across from the house he shares with his supermodel wife, Stephanie Seymour, some of their nine children and stepchildren and their Warhol-heavy collection of contemporary art. Sitting conspicuously on the property is Jeff Koons’s monumental topiary Puppy, a 2000 recreation of the 1992 original, which can be glimpsed by drivers winding their way through the rural northern precinct of town known as the “backcountry.” Fronting the polo grounds is a stone barn formerly used as the clubhouse. Brant has hired the architect Richard Gluckman to turn the structure into The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, scheduled to open in spring 2009, which will house curated exhibitions of the collection. Those who can’t get an appointment will have to make do with viewing loans from his holdings at museum exhibitions, such as last winter’s show of Richard Prince (a favorite of Brant’s) at the Guggenheim, on whose board Brant sits with Jennifer Stockman. "Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant" originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of Art+Auction; this online version contains corrections. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's July 2008 Table of Contents.
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