Harvey Manes: An Artist’s Soul, a Businessman’s Disposition

By writing his book Collecting Art for Pleasure and Profit, Manes showed the world that collecting art is a viable alternative to traditional investment opportunities. He has shown stock brokers, (Harvey is his own stockbroker), real estate agents, and financial advisors the monetary value of all kinds of art. He equipped them with the knowledge to make the most of opportunities available in the art market. Manes spun the popular narrative that “art is for pleasure only” on its head.

“Art is more than an aesthetic,” says Manes.

What made Harvey Manes? The child of a troubled, divorced home, his father nonetheless, regularly took him to the Brooklyn Museum. Manes roamed the galleries where art touched his soul.

In college, Manes majored in art history. He went to medical school to become a successful orthopedic surgeon. At last, Manes made real money.

Manes bought art and invested in the stock market. His unparalleled success is the rest of the story.Manes’ passion for the arts included his encouragement of non-art institutions to collect and exhibit art.

He donated half a million dollars to the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach for the creation of the Manes Art Center, the only synagogue known to have a significant collection of contemporary art, thanks to Harvey.

Manes’ gifts, major and minor, are to museums, major and minor. He sits on the board of the Nassau County Museum and most recently gave the Boca Raton Museum in Florida, where he also sits on the board, $10,000,000 for the soon to be constructed Manes School of Art.

Manes is the founder of The Manes Peace Prize Foundation supporting charities or individuals and organizations that promote peace through art and education.

Manes has a favorite story. He spotted a 1581 El Greco with a badly damaged frame in the corner of a Sotheby’s London showroom, authenticated by an El Greco expert. It didn’t sell and Harvey bought it after the sale for $150,000. The appraiser had never seen the work. Harvey found another El Greco expert, who, upon examining the work declared it to be one of the great lost El Greco’s. He appraised it for $140,000,000. Bravo Harvey!

Manes has a message for young collectors. Buy what you like and be patient. Art takes time to appreciate. Don’t buy at the top of the market.

Emerging artists are not a certain thing. Like stocks, art rises and falls.

Harvey Manes’ collection of Old Masters, Impressionists Contemporary and Emerging Artists is Legendary. So is Harvey Manes.