The ruthless and brilliant record industry mogul (and former Cher suitor) holds not only one of the best art collections in the US, but one of the best-kept secrets. The collection, thought to be of medium size with major stars and little supporting cast, rarely goes on public display.

‘Piece for piece, work for work, there’s no collection that has a better representation of postwar American art than David Geffen’s’, the Los Angeles curator Paul Schimmel has said.

Geffen, whose collection is thought to be rich with Johns, de Kooning, and Rauschenberg, has begun to unload some of it, for reasons that have fuelled speculation: when he sold the Pollock drip painting No. 5 (1948) last year for about £70 million, it became the most expensive art sale in history. That, combined with Geffen’s recent failed attempt to purchase the Los Angeles Times has some wondering if this famously press-shy figure may have larger civic or imperial ambitions.