Late video game executive Ryan Brant’s art collection is headed to auction.
KAWS, Untitled, 2013. Est. $250,000–350,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s.
The collection of Ryan Brant, the pioneering video game mogul and son of prolific art collector Peter Brant, will be headed to auction at Sotheby’s beginning this month. Brant, who died earlier this year at age 47, founded the video game company Take-Two Interactive in 1993, when he was just 21. Under Brant’s tenure, Take-Two oversaw the launch of such popular video game franchises as Grand Theft Auto and the 2K sports series. He resigned in 2006 amid allegations that he and the company had given misinformation to investors.
In a statement, Amy Cappellazzo of Sotheby’s Fine Art Division described Brant as “a brave and independent collector with a definitive point of view.” She added that he was an “early collector and advocate” of the street artist KAWS, whom he began collecting more than a decade ago. The series of sales, dubbed “Game On! Property from the Collection of Ryan Brant,” will see more than 130 works from Brant’s collection head to the auction block—including more than 25 works by KAWS—from this month until spring of 2020, in Sotheby’s New York and Hong Kong salesrooms, as well as online.
Interior view of Ryan Brant’s home. Courtesy
Clearly drawn to loud colors and pop/post-pop imagery, Brant’s taste in art was befitting to a video game designer. Artists featured in Brant’s collection that will be present in the auction include Kenny Scharf, KAWS, Francesco Clemente, and Josh Smith, as well as outlandish furniture by the Campana brothers (Fernando Campana and Humberto Campana), and Gaetano Pesce. In June, auction house Phillips sold four other KAWS paintings from Brant’s estate.
