The pleasure we associate with our most treasured possessions is closely associated with the memories of how and where we acquired them, as well as with the connection and context these objects have to one another.
The collector and philanthropist John J. Lanzendorf credits his love for art and artifacts at least in part to his possessing an inherent “black belt” in acquisition. From an early age, Lanzendorf took pleasure in admiring an object, and acquiring it.
“I was raised in Northern Wisconsin,” Lanzendorf recollects. “While my father was hunting in the outdoors, I would accompany my mother antiquing.”
Lanzendorf is recognized internationally for his work as a hairstylist to the famous and well heeled: he has counted among his clients and friends Rita Hayworth, Agnes Moorhead, and Bea Arthur, as well as Bette Midler, Rita Moreno, and Angela Lansbury.
But through the decades of professional success, his personal passion has always been collecting.
