Pursuits
Using Warhols to Save a Failed Company
Peter Brant pledges art to buy White Birch’s assets
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Long before Peter Brant became a billionaire, he was collecting paintings by Andy Warhol, buying his first while he was in college. Today the 65-year-old industrialist, and husband of supermodel Stephanie Seymour, ranks as one of the largest contemporary art collectors in the U.S.
Brant lost his billionaire status when his family’s newsprint company, White Birch Paper, filed for bankruptcy in February 2010 after newsprint prices tumbled. In a court filing, Brant said his net worth slipped from $1.4 billion in 2007 to less than $500 million in 2010.