Smash hit

4. Alistair McAlpine

One of the oddest, most voracious and perplexing of collectors is Alistair McAlpine, whom Mrs Thatcher ennobled in 1983 as Lord McAlpine of West Green. Born into a Scots building dynasty settled in the Thames Valley, McAlpine has abundant curiosity and restless energy, qualities that he believes to be essential in collectors. Possession is the least important part of collecting for him: “I collect I suppose to learn, for I have never collected to possess. When a collection passes from my hands it goes in total – nothing remains”. I gave up counting the number of collections that Alistair McAlpine has formed but it is well in excess of forty, on each of which for a time he concentrated to the point of compulsion. He has shed them even faster. Today he lives with relatively little, apart from vast accumulations of books and textiles, and instead writes about collecting.

McAlpine’s collecting ranged across everything from Hockney prints, photography, arts and crafts, Islamic, guns, armour, American rag dolls, porcelain, police truncheons, shells, minerals, Soviet manifestos, 19th-century French literary manuscripts, first editions, beads, old fashioned roses (420 varieties), farm implements, rare chickens (75 different breeds), to snowdrops. He would often form several collections at the same time and when his interest shifted he would either give them away or - as he was increasingly inclined - sell the collection en bloc.

5. Charles Saatchi

Saatchi has always said that “I primarily buy art to show it off” and the acquisition in 1983 of gallery space at Boundary Road was the greatest stimulation. London had seen nothing like it before: huge, neutral and dedicated entirely to contemporary art, it became the focus of the London avant garde.

He opened with American art in 1985 with Donald Judd, Brice Marden, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. This was followed up the next year with Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Frank Stella and Dan Flavin. The third year showed no let-up with Kiefer and Serra, followed by an exhibition of New York Art Now including Koons and Gober. The American artists he chose were, for the most part, already well known in New York but there is a pleasing circularity because the young British artists who saw these exhibitions, including Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Jenny Saville and Rachel Whiteread, were to feed the next generation of Saatchi exhibitions and elevate the collection to world status. Collectors are usually rewarded with the credit they receive for their choice of art works but Charles Saatchi is one of a tiny handful of collectors who can also be said to have influenced a generation of artists.

Extracted from Great Collectors of Our Time, published by Scala, November 1, 2007

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James Stourton will discuss his book with the Times art critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston at the National Portrait Gallery, in London, on December 13. We have 10 pairs of tickets to give away.

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Readers can buy tickets in person from the gallery, by calling 020 7306 0055, or by booking online at www.npg.org.uk

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