Keeping Art In The Family

Donald and Mera Rubell have been collecting art for four decades, with their two children assisting them for much of that time, and the family has 5,000 works, 27,000 art books, and a 40,000-square-foot museum to show for their efforts. And the Rubells don’t plan to abandon the all-in-the-family approach anytime soon: according to the family patriarch, “we’re training our two grandkids, too. The 3-year-old, Samuel, can already recognize a Jeff Koons or a Maurizio Cattelan. Ella, who is a year-and-a-half, isn’t independent yet. She tends to follow and look at what he looks at. You have to train them.”