Private museums seem to be the topic of the day. So here’s a look at how David Roberts who owns one of Britain’s bigger provate collections, DRAF, “housed in a 12,000 sq ft former furniture factory in Camden, north London,” according to British GQ:

Expected to follow several generations of his family into the shipyards of Port Glasgow, albeit as a grammar-school boy in the white-collar job of naval architect, Roberts found himself bored by the training, got a job as a surveyor, began dealing in property and moved down south. “I married, bought a house, had [six] kids; I knew I was interested in art, but I lived in Ascot and wasn’t part of the London scene. The early stuff I bought was decorative pieces I found on holiday.”

Roberts’ first acquisition was a painting by Manuel Otero which cost £3,000. He then bought “a picture for the front room and another for the bedroom, the odd bit of sculpture,” until his potential as a collector was seen. “Art dealers have a way of sniffing you out. There’s a sense that you’ve broken the meniscus and you’re in. I was taken to shows, to artists’ studios, and I often bought because the artists were skint. There are dealers who give bad advice, just after a quick sale, and you get your fingers burnt. But there are other dealers who take their time helping you develop as a collector.”

As business took off, the collection expanded, filling the Ascot house, the London flat, the office and ultimately “a warehouse, which felt a bit sad.”

David Roberts Art Foundation presents Geographies of Contamination (GQ)