Bloomberg has a profile of star emerging markets fund manager Justin Leverenz. Unfortunately, the  43-year-old can find no better analogy for his stunning 42% five-year returns than to compare them to art:

“Investors in businesses are positioned to do well in the next decade,” said Leverenz, who has overseen a 133 percent increase in the Oppenheimer fund’s assets since he took the helm in May 2007, making it the world’s biggest actively-managed equity mutual fund focused on developing nations, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “A few companies enjoy such extraordinary benefits that no one can replace them for a long, long period of time.”

Leverenz, an art enthusiast who buys paintings from China, Russia and India, compares the companies in his fund to artists such as Andy Warhol who consistently generate higher returns than their peers. A Warhol self-portrait sold for $38.4 million at Christie’s International in New York last May.

“If you look at the price distribution of paintings or sculptures, very few people command the economics,” said Leverenz, a father of three who lives in New York’s Westchester County. “When I look at the companies, it’s the same observation.”

Leverenz Collects Warhol Returns With Ctrip in Top Emerging Fund (Bloomberg)