Top 200 Collectors

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Miami Beach–based investor Aaron I. Fleischman founded and ran his eponymous Washington, D.C., law firm for over 35 years. Widely considered a go-to attorney in the field of communications law, Fleischman and his firm played pivotal roles in the high-growth and consolidation of the cable television and cellular industries during the late, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. Preferring to keep a low profile, Fleischman was a close advisor to many U.S. corporations and their executives. 

Fleischman is an honorary trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and a trustee emeritus of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2018, he endowed a curatorship of modern and contemporary art at the Met. At the time, the Met’s president and CEO, Daniel H. Weiss said in a statement, “With this gift, Mr. Fleischman will enable The Met to continue our momentum on presenting and studying art of the 20th and 21st centuries, and, importantly, he joins a group of donors who are ensuring the future of the institution through their thoughtful philanthropy.” 

Fleischman’s other philanthropy includes having supported museum exhibitions, art acquisitions, construction, research, and study projects at various art institutions across the country. In the past, he has served on several corporate and museum boards, including the Whitney Museum in New York. He has also lent works from his collection extensively to institutions for exhibitions and artist retrospectives like the National Gallery of Art in D.C. 

On the collecting side of things, Fleischman focuses on American and European modernism and contemporary art dating from 1912 though the present. Insiders tell ARTnews that his holdings include a number of top-quality paintings by artists like Mondrian, Picasso, Kandinsky, de Kooning, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Marsden Hartley, and Charles Sheeler. He also collects many artists in depth, which, we are told, include stellar works by Donald Judd, Brice Marden, Cy Twombly, Ellsworth Kelly, Lucio Fontana, Robert Ryman, and Robert Gober.

A private person, Fleischman has been known to invite visiting museum groups, collectors, and scholars to tour his spectacular residences and art collection over the years.