Borrowed money, missed chances and a 50-work gift: collector Charles Asprey on buying art
His first artwork took borrowed money. Thirty years later, British collector Charles Asprey has given away more than 50 works.
Asprey told his story in an interview about what he has bought and why, published by The Art Newspaper on 14 October 2026. He got his start in the art world in 1990s New York, working for dealer Andrea Rosen.
His first purchase came in 1995. It was a photograph by American artist Matthew Barney, for approximately US$3,000. Asprey said he borrowed half the sum from his father.
His most recent purchase keeps a link to London art history. Asprey said his last buy was a work by British painter Prunella Clough that was previously owned by Bryan Robertson, the former director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London.
He also named the one that got away. Asprey said he regrets not buying work by American painter Noah Davis before Davis's show at the Barbican in London in 2025.
The interview follows a large gift. In 2026, Asprey donated more than 50 works from his collection to the Pier Arts Centre in Orkney, Scotland.
Asprey is described by the British Museum in London as a dealer, print publisher and collector. The museum lists his life dates as beginning in 1971, and names him as one of the founders of Ridinghouse Editions, a company that produces prints and books with artists.
He still publishes. Asprey co-runs Picpus, a pocket-sized arts quarterly. For Frieze week 2026, London's annual contemporary art fair week, he is showing new paintings by British artist Alessandro Raho at the inaugural London Invitational art fair.
Parties are part of the routine too. Asprey said he hosts an annual Monday party to kick off Frieze week with Michael Callies of Dependance, a gallery in Brussels.
Asked which museum works he would choose to own, he picked two modern classics. They were The Rose (1958-66) by American artist Jay DeFeo and Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound (1914) by French-born sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.
What makes this stand out for anyone who has never bought art is how ordinary the mechanics sound. Save, borrow, miss out, try again. The sums change. The habit does not.
