By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

David Rockefeller, MoMA’s honorary chairman, is among 23 collectors profiled in Diane McJanus Jensen’s The Art of Collecting: An Intimate Tour Inside Private Art Collections with Advice on Starting Your Own. The glossy book offers a voyeur’s treat: photos of collectors’ homes and interviews. There are some surprising nuggets.

For instance, Rockefeller is enamored with fiber optic lighting—used to illuminate his Bonnards and Monets—and occasionally makes the gallery rounds with  MoMA director Glenn Lowry.

Other factoids: Lawyer Alan Dershowitz’s house is packed with works by De Chirico, Rockwell Kent and myriad lesser known finds. Janet and Larry Larose own over 350 objects by Christopher Dresser.

The collectors cross a range of categories including the contemporary holdings of Kelly and Scott Miller, Erinch Ozada’s video art and Norman and Alicia Westmoreland Volk’s dog portraiture.

The author, who has worked as a gallery owner and private art advisor, creates an intimate, behind-the-scenes tour. Each Q&A section features installation shots of the collector’s homes, revealing that yes, David Rockefeller lives in a duplex, and that his staircase is adorned with two late waterlily paintings by Claude Monet.

Some of the collections are the result of a methodical approach.  Logan Delany served as chairman of the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers before buying his first piece. He and his wife, Penny, study the market and each piece and then review with an art consultant. Logan attends nearly every American art auction and maintains a database of almost 16,000 images of American art.

Meanwhile, billionaire William I. Koch calls his collection “unusual.” His buys on whim, depending on his mood. His expansive and incongruous collection ranges across Impressionism, Modernish, Western, Marine, and Contemporary art. A Miro hangs near a trio of Remington bronzes. Other possessions include Winslow Homer’s 1873 Three Boys in a Dory,  a Roman head of Dionysus and the rifle that killed Jesse James.

Most of the collectors agree that art should not be purchased based on popularity or investment potential.  Boston sculpture collector David Bakalar buys whatever intrigues him. He advises others to buy art that “adds to your life.” A George Segal bench sculpture depicting Bakalar and his wife ultimately inspired him to try sculpting himself. Bakalar has created his own bronze and granite artworks to accompany Segal’s on the family’s lawn. (See more of Bakalar’s art here.)

Part of the book is divided into fifteen essays offering information about the nuts and bolts of collecting, conservation, art fairs, lighting and insurance. Eli Wilner’s essay addresses the importance of framing. Judith Terra of the Terra Museum of American Art details her family’s process in creating their single-benefactor museum in Chicago. While the pieces provide broad information about the nuances of collecting, they are not detailed enough to provide any real advice or insight. Ultimately, they diverge from the intimacy of the private collector profiles.

Publisher: Jensen Fine Arts $65

Collectors and their Categories:
John Axelrod
African American and South American Art, Art Moderne, and Decorative Arts

Sandra and David Bakalar
Modern and Contemporary Sculpture

Scott M. Black
Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Surrealism

Paulette and Larry Brill
Outsider and Found Art

Penny and Logan Delany
Nineteeth-Century American and Hudson River School Paintings

Carolyn Cohen and Alan Dershowitz
Modern Masters and Judaica

Anne Gallagher
Contemporary Regional Painting

Audrey Heckler
Outsider Art

Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Contemporary Art

William I. Koch
Impressionist, Western, Marine, and Contemporary Art

Janet and Larry Larose
Nineteenth-Century Art and Design and the Art of Charles Dresser

Paula and Peter Lunder
Nineteenth-and Twentieth-Century American Art

Catherine and Matt Mandel
African Art and Ceramics

Katherine and Frank Martucci
Nineteenth-Century Paintings by George Inness

Kelly and Scott Miller
Contemporary and Emerging Artists

Tommy Morrison
Photography

Erinch Ozada
Video Art

Anne and William Palmer
Emerging European and American Art

Nancy and Charles Parrish
School of Paris Painting and Southwestern Pottery

David Rockefeller
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

Alicia Westmoreland Volk and Norman Volk
Russian Icons, French and Scottish Impressionism, and Dog Portraits

Jessica Josell Wechsler and Steven Wechsler
Photography and Kinetic Art

Donna and Neil Weisman
Photorealism and Italian Glass