Art: THE GOLDEN FLEECE

TO win a throne for himself, the legendary Greek hero Jason sought and found the fabled Golden Fleece, outward symbol of all that was most rich and rare. Today’s Jason is another golden Greek, the modern-day Argonaut Stavros Spyros Niarchos, 48 (TIME, Aug. 6, 1956), whose tanker fleets gird the globe, bring in a train of wealth and credit that affords Niarchos comforts and pleasures beyond even Jason’s imaginings. Niarchos has a Long Island estate, a Manhattan triplex, a penthouse atop London’s Claridge’s, a princely hótel particulier in Paris, a $575,000 Riviera villa and the largest privately owned sailing vessel afloat, the three-masted Creole. But his real Golden Fleece is his art collection.

Evidence of how far Stavros Niarchos has come in only eight years of collecting will be displayed next month when his top 63 paintings (valued at more than $5,000,000) will go on exhibit for charity at Manhattan’s Knoedler Gallery, then will travel in February to Ottawa’s National Gallery. Bought after the boom in 19th century French impressionists was well under way, the paintings in the Niarchos show will include no less than four each by Cézanne, Gauguin and Degas, six Rouaults, nine Renoirs, seven Van Goghs, plus outstanding works by Matisse, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Goya, Delacroix, Corot and El Greco (see color pages). The show represents the utmost in mid-20th century moneyed taste.

Shadowy & Aloof. What catapulted Niarchos overnight into the front ranks of 20th century collectors was his purchase for more than $2,500,000 of 58 paintings and one Degas sculpture from the Edward G. Robinsons’ collection last spring (the Knoedler show will include 40 of the Robinson paintings). But Niarchos did not attain his standing as a collector solely on the strength of the Hollywood actor’s selections. He made his first modest purchase when he picked up Winslow Homer’s A Voice from the Cliffs (which now hangs in his Manhattan penthouse office) and a Renoir landscape at a Parke-Bernet auction in Manhattan in 1949. His first major purchase was Renoir’s The Two Sisters, for which he paid $53,200 at Paris’ famed Cognacq collection sales in 1952 which touched off a boom in Impressionist paintings. He bought his collection’s ‘ most important single work, El Greco’s Pieta for $400,000 to celebrate New Year’s Eve 1954.

For art dealers, whose livelihood can rest on their ability to size up a new client, his tastes and bank roll, Niarchos has proved to be one of the most enigmatic figures in the art world. Says one of London’s leading dealers, “We all know of Niarchos; one or two of us have seen him now and then. We all agree that he is one of the world’s more important collectors. But he’s shadowy and aloof in the gallery realm. He remains behind the scenes.”

Most dealers today admit with chagrin that they at first misjudged their man. Their impression was that Niarchos was buying to cover his walls, or as investments. Today such feelings have given way to respect in the light of Niarchos’ hard bargaining, retentive memory and grim determination that has had his agents stalking important paintings for years. “If I had to name two characteristics of Niarchos,” says one international art dealer, “they would be that he prefers ‘strong pictures,’ and that he had good taste, or good advice, right from the beginning.”

Too busy for casual gallery browsing, Niarchos relies on auction catalogues, a network of watchful employees and the tips (as well as enthusiasms) of his well-heeled collector friends. His behind-the-scenes maneuvering reached a climax when he bought the Robinsons’ collection without seeing anything more than a catalogue (though his handsome Greek wife Eugenie, who often drops in at galleries, did fly to Los Angeles under an assumed name for a firsthand look).

Gallery Afloat. With half a dozen residences round the world to furnish, Niarchos has no shortage of wall space. El Greco’s Pietà is too big (47¼-in. by 57 in.) to follow him around the world, remains in a room specially decorated for it in Manhattan. His favorite repository is the yacht Creole, which for nearly six months of the year is the Niarchos’ home afloat. In the below-decks salon he hangs some of his best, has a special place of honor where he rotates his favorite of the moment—currently Gauguin’s Horsemen on the Beach.

This has provoked angry predictions from London art experts that his masterpieces are in danger from the salt air. Niarchos brushes off this complaint: “On my yacht, sea air and water never reach the paintings. The rooms are air-conditioned, with temperature and humidity controls. Filters control the inflow of air, which is always pure, and smoke from cigarettes is immediately expelled by adequate installations.”

Dealers round the world are now wondering when Niarchos will begin culling out the Robinsons’ collection. Niarchos himself has admitted he wanted only “seven or eight paintings,” bought the whole lot to get them. But instead of unloading, Niarchos keeps buying. Why? Says Niarchos, “I collect for the pleasure and esthetic satisfaction pictures give me. I like living with them. They make my surroundings and my life more pleasant. It is by no means a matter of investment; it is a question of pleasure, fun and feeling.”