For artists with already bankable reputations, owning art adds to their status and, potentially, to their fortunes. But it also means they are even more deeply enmeshed in the health of that particular market. No diversification of asset classes here. “I think the irony of it is that these painters who’ve made billions out of their work, rather like the hedge-fund people who’ve made billions out of their work, buy paintings because what the hell else are they going to spend their money on?” says Richardson.

Ultimately, perhaps, artists are just as prone as others to the existential imperative of materialism: I acquire, therefore I am. In an interview with the curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist printed in the Serpentine Gallery catalogue of his collection show, Hirst tellingly notes: “As a human being, as you go through life, you just do collect. It was that sort of entropic collecting that I found myself interested in—just amassing stuff while you’re alive. It’s just the stuff washed up on a beach somewhere, and that somewhere is you. Then, when you die, it all gets washed away again.” "Artists' Most Wanted" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2008 Table of Contents.