A yacht isn’t as impressive as a cultural contribution, de Pury says.

Simon de Pury: No I don’t think it’s lost it in any way. I think it’s even gained more of its status. And when you achieve things in life, or commercial success for instance, once you have everything you need, and people who bought big houses, boats, planes and all of that, or a football club – anything like that – nothing brings you the level of satisfaction and quality of life that collecting art brings you. And nothing brings you, I think, the status if you are playing an important role on a cultural level. I mean you’ve seen people who have been phenomenally successful as entrepreneurs in the commercial sense. But if they don’t have that commercial dimension, they simply will not leave the same lasting impact as those who have played a prominent role on the cultural scene. Recorded on: 2/7/08