Top 200 Collectors

Robert H. Defares made his billions in electronic trading after cofounding the Amsterdam-based company IMC B.V in 1989. The firm now has offices in Chicago, Hong Kong, and Sydney. Despite being press shy, he hasn’t been shy when it comes to doling out cash for philanthropic endeavors the art world. In 2020, he launched Hartwig Art Foundation, which buys and commissions artworks to donate to the Dutch state and to make them available to institutions in his home country and abroad. Agnieszka Kurant, Édgar Calel, Mariana Castillo Deball, Meriem Bennani, and Monira Al Qadiri are just some of the artists who feature in the collection.

Based in Amsterdam, the project was initially injected with $10 million to get if off the ground and Defares continues to be its biggest benefactor. Among the artists it has supported in realizing performance and video-based works are Wu Tsang, Meredith Monk, Julien Creuzet, John Akomfrah, Ed Atkins, Arthur Jafa, and Anne Imhof.

The organization also has a partnership with the Performa Biennial in New York, supporting two fellowships as part of the biennial’s curation and research; the 2025 edition will also partially be staged in Amsterdam through the Hartwig’s support.

On top of this, the Hartwig Art Foundation is currently building an ambitious, privately funded contemporary art museum in a former Amsterdam courthouse. The institution is to be helmed by curator Beatrix Ruf, the former director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam who has served as an adviser to the foundation. With a 100-year commitment to the Dutch capital, “it is unlike anything we have in the country, the concept itself is quite radical,” Ruf told The Art Newspaper.

Defares himself rarely gives interviews and not much is known about his personal art holdings, though they likely skew toward the artistic interests of his foundation. In 2018, Forbes estimated his wealth at $1.6 billion, making him the youngest Dutch person to make its closely watched index of billionaires.