Daniel Wildenstein facts for kids

Daniel Leopold Wildenstein (born September 11, 1917 – died October 23, 2001) was a famous French art dealer, historian, and a successful owner and breeder of thoroughbred and standardbred race horses. He was the third person in his family to lead Wildenstein & Co., which was one of the most successful and important art businesses of the 1900s. People even called him "probably the richest and most powerful art dealer on Earth."

Early Life and School

Daniel Wildenstein was born in Verrières-le-Buisson, a town near Paris, France. He went to school at Cours Hattemer and then studied at the University of Paris, finishing in 1938. After that, he continued his studies at the École du Louvre, a famous art school.

The Family Art Business

Daniel's grandfather, Nathan Wildenstein, started the family's art business in Paris. He began by selling French paintings and sculptures from the 1700s. Later, he expanded to include art from Italy, the Netherlands, Flanders, and Spain.

Nathan was very good at business, even though he started out working in a tailor's shop. He sold art to important collectors like J. P. Morgan and the Rockefeller family. He opened galleries in New York in 1903 and in London in 1925.

The Wildenstein family became known for being smart business people. They collected many artworks to sell them later for a good profit. Nathan built a huge collection of old European paintings, sculptures, and other art pieces. Daniel's father, Georges Wildenstein, added Impressionist and Postimpressionist art to this collection.

By 1978, the Wildenstein & Co. storage in New York held thousands of paintings. This included many works by famous artists like Renoir, Courbet, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, Rembrandt, and Rubens. The family kept their art collection very private, which made the art world very curious about what they owned.

Career and Art Books

In 1940, Daniel Wildenstein moved to New York to work for his family's art business. He had already gained experience helping with art exhibitions in France. In 1959, he took over running the Wildenstein & Co. branches in Paris and New York. By 1963, he was in charge of the London and Buenos Aires branches too. Later, a gallery in Tokyo was added.

As an art dealer, Daniel was incredibly successful. A magazine article in 1998 said his wealth was estimated to be over $5 billion. It stated that his fortune was the largest ever made in the art market.

Like his father, Daniel Wildenstein also became a respected scholar and art historian. He updated and expanded the art books his father had published. He also started his own projects, collecting old documents and creating the Wildenstein Institute. This institute became famous for publishing special books called catalogues raisonné, which are complete lists of an artist's works. These books are used to prove if an artwork is real.

Daniel published a five-volume catalogue raisonné of all the works by the famous artist Claude Monet between 1976 and 1992. He also wrote books about Édouard Manet, Gustave Courbet, and Paul Gauguin. From 1963, he was the main editor of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, an important art magazine. In 1971, he became a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, a very respected French art institution.

Even though he officially retired in 1990, Daniel Wildenstein still kept a close eye on the business. Over time, the number of Wildenstein galleries around the world became smaller, with only two remaining in New York. One of these, PaceWildenstein, was a partnership started in 1993 to deal with modern art. This partnership ended in 2010.

In 1999, Daniel Wildenstein published a book of his interviews called Marchand d’Art, which means "Art Dealer."

Thoroughbred Horse Racing

Daniel Wildenstein's racing silks

Daniel Wildenstein was a very important person in European horse racing. He won the famous Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe race four times and was France's top horse owner six times. His horses, many of which he bred himself, raced under the name Allez France Stables. They won many major races in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

His first win in the Arc was with a female horse named Allez France in 1974. He won again with All Along in 1983, with Sagace the next year, and with a male horse named Peintre Celebre in 1997. Peintre Celebre even broke the course record! The horse All Along, which Daniel bred, was named horse of the year in France and America after winning the Arc and other races in the U.S. Some of his other successful horses included Pawneese, Madelia, and Flying Water.

Wildenstein was known for being a very strong-minded owner. He sometimes criticized how his jockeys rode his horses. For example, his comments about Pat Eddery's riding in a 1978 race led his trainer, Peter Walwyn, to ask him to move his horses to another stable. His horses then went to Henry Cecil's care, and they had a lot of success together. However, that relationship also ended in 1985 after Wildenstein criticized Cecil's jockey, Lester Piggott. Piggott famously said that the Wildensteins were "inveterate bad losers," meaning they always complained when they lost.

Personal Life

In 1939, Daniel Wildenstein married Martine Kapferer. They had two sons, Alec and Guy. Later, their marriage ended. In 1978, he married Sylvia Roth, whom he had first met in 1964.

Death and What Happened Next

Daniel Wildenstein passed away from cancer in 2001 at the age of 84 in a Paris hospital. His second wife and his two sons from his first marriage survived him. His son Guy Wildenstein took over the art business, and his other son, Alec Wildenstein, took charge of the family's horse racing and breeding operations.

After his death, there was a long legal discussion about Daniel Wildenstein's wealth. In 2005, a court in Paris decided that his second wife, Sylvia Wildenstein, had been tricked into giving up her inheritance. The court ruled that Sylvia Wildenstein was entitled to half of her late husband's personal wealth.